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I VOICES 
FROM RUSSIA 



Published and Sold by The 
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At the head of the Revolution is the Prole- 
tariat. At the head of the Proletariat is Social- 
Democracy ! 

Let us exert all our power, comrades! Let 
us put all our energy and all our passion into 
this. Let Us not forget for a moment the great 
responsibility vested in our Party ; a responsi- 
bility before the Russian Revolution and in the 
sight of International Socialism. 

The proletariat of the entire world looks to 
us with expectation. Broad vistas are being 
opened for humanity by a victorious Russian 
Revolution. Comrades, let us do our duty! 

Let us close our ranks, comrades! Let us 
unite, and unite the masses! Let us prepare, 
and prepare the masses for the day of decisive 
actions! Let us overlook nothing. Let us leave 
no power unused for the Cause. 

Brave, honest, harmoniously united, we shall 
march forward, linked by unbreakable bonds, 
brothers in the Revolution! 

— Leon Trotzky. 



THE BOLSHEVIKI REGIME. 

THE Bolsheviki constituted .themselves the Govern- 
ment of Russia on November 7th, 1917. This action 
brought the period of indecision to an end; the workers 
were in power and all who opposed them were stamped 
as counter-revolutionary; it brought an end to the com- 
promise between the Mensheviki and the bourgeoisie 
under the guise of "revolutionary unity," and showed 
these two factions in their true colors, i. e., anti-working 
class. After November 7th, the class division in Russia 
stood out clearly; all the workers and poor peasants sup- 
ported the Bolsheviki, and the land-owners, the bour- 
geoisie and their hangers on were anti-Bolsheviki. 

Soon after gaining power the Bolshevik Government 
drafted two decrees; one dealt with the armistice on all 
fronts, the other with the abolition of private ownership 
of land. By this means they enlisted the support of the 
workers and peasants with their cry of "Peace and 
Land." Ninety per cent of the workers in Russia were 
sick of war, and any Government which hoped for 
success was bound to strive for peace. The Bolsheviki 
accepted the situation and entered into peace negotia- 
tions with the Central Powers. On December 10th a 
truce was signed and a peace conference was decided 
upon, to be held at Brest-Litovsk. 

The peace programme of the Bolsheviki — "No indem- 
nities," "No annexations," and "Self-determination of 
peoples," was essentially a working class programme, 
and these phrases could only be translated into realities 
when the workers of the world had become supreme. 
Fundamentally, the actions of the Bolsheviki at Brest- 
Litovsk were an invitation to the workers of Europe for 
a peace made by the workers through the overthrow of 
capitalism. To think that any bourgeois government 
could accept these terms denotes a great lack of under- 
standing as to what capitalism is. Yet, this is precisely 
what many so-called Socialists thought, and much sicken- 
ing cant was printed all over the world by people who 



thus proved themselves unable to understand the class 
struggle. Only the workers organized as the ruling class 
could accept these terms — until that time they will re- 
main beautiful phrases used by capitalist journalists and 
ignorant "Labor" writers to fool the workers. To many 
of the Bolsheviki this was clear, especially Lenin, who 
said: "Self-determination of people is a farce, it is only 
necessary to ask the capitalists of the world to get off the 
backs of their own people to prove it." 

The negotiations at Brest-Litovsk dragged on until 
February 10th, 1918, when Trotzky dramatically issued his 
"no war, but no peace" statement, which was afterwards 
ratified by the Government at Petrograd, and the de- 
mobilization of the army was ordered. On February 
18th the German army started its advance into Russia, 
and the old Russian army offered little resistance. The 
order for the demobilization of the army was only the 
recognition of an actual fact, since the peasants in the 
army had already started off home; the Bolsheviki de 
cided to destroy this institution of the old regime and 
build up a workers' army. 

On February 19th Lenin and Trotzky issued a proc- 
lamation protesting against the invasion and saying that 
"in the present circumstances the Council of People's 
Commissaries regards itself as forced formally to de- 
clare its willingness to sign a peace upon the conditions 
whicK had been dictated by the delegations of the 
Quadruple Alliance at Brest-Litovsk." Lenin accepted 
the situation and urged the signing of the peace treaty, 
pointing out that they had no army to fight with, and 
that "to refuse to sign these terms is only possible to 
those who are intoxicated by revolutionary phrases." 
The terms were signed and the work of defense was 
started, with the result that the German army came to a 
halt at Pskov, sixty-five miles from Petrograd, on Feb- 
ruary 6th. 

The bourgeois Rada in Ukrainia had already signed 
a separate peace with the Central Powers, and the Ger- 
man army entered Ukrainia to restore "order" — and 
seize grain and other supplies to be shipped to Germany. 

4 



This had a fine effect upon the peasants, who had resisted 
the Bolsheviki troops; the German army, in forcing 
class consciousness upon the peasants, forced them into 
the arms of the Bolsheviki; as for the bourgeoisie of 
Ukrainia, they are not having a happy time of it, and it 
does not matter to us what happens to them. 

While Kerensky was in power he issued a decree 
calling for the election of a Constituent Assembly; this 
Assembly (as its name indicates) was to decide upon the 
new constitution of Eussia. The Assembly convened at 
Petrograd on January 18th, 1918. The Bolsheviki had 
only a minority, the majority being Mensheviki and 
bourgeois. The Constituent Assembly was forcibly dis- 
persed because it refused to pass a declaration submit- 
ted to it by the Central Executive Committee of the 
"Workmen's and Soldiers 7 Delegates, as follows: 

"The Constituent Assembly resolves that Russia be 
declared a republic of Soviets. The central and provin- 
cial power appertaining to these Soviets. The Republic 
of Soviets is formed on the! basis of a free alliance of 
free nations under the constitution of a confederation 
of national Soviet republics." 

Then followed a long series of provisions, the aboli- 
tion of private proprietorship of land ; the equal liability 
of all to work; the arming of the working class and the 
disarming of the bourgeoisie. Article II approved the 
policy of the Workers and Soldiers' Delegates for a 
democratic peace, and approved the decree repudiating 
the Russian loans. Article IV read : 

<<* # # # ^Yiq Constituent Assembly considers 
that it can in no way oppose the power of the Work- 
men's and Soldiers' Government. At the moment of the 
decisive struggle of the people against those who have 
exploited them, the latter can find no place in the govern- 
ing body. The power must be exclusively in the hands 
of the working class and its representatives, the Soviets." 

The majority of the Constituent Assembly, being 
bourgeois, rejected this declaration, "The Rights of the 
Toiling and Exploited People," as it was named; there- 
upon the Bolsheviki Government ordered its dissolution. 

5 



After the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly 
the Executive Committee of the Congress of "Workmen's 
and Soldiers' Delegates issued a proclamation declaring 
that the revolution created the Workmen's and Soldiers' 
Council as the only* organization able to direct the strug- 
gle of the exploited working class for complete political 
and economical liberation. During the first period of the 
revolution the Workmen's and Soldiers' Congress had 
perceived the illusion of an understanding with the 
bourgeoisie and its deceptive parliamentary organiza- 
tion, and realized that the liberation of the oppressed 
class was impossible without a rupture with the bour- 
geoisie. The decree points out that the November revo- 
lution gave all authority to the Workmen's and Soldiers' 
Delegates, and that the Constituent Assembly being 
elected from the old election lists, was an expression of 
the old regime when the power belonged to the bour- 
geoisie. The workers had learned that the old bourgeois 
parliamentarianism had had its day, and was incompati- 
ble with the tasks before Socialism, only the Workmen's 
and Soldiers' Councils were able to overcome the opposi- 
tion of the rich classes and create a new Socialist State. 
The refusal of the majority of the Assembly to debate 
the programme of the Central Executive Committee of 
the Congress of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates had 
caused the withdrawal of the Bolsheviki and the Social 
Revolutionists of the Left from the Assembly. The So- 
cial Revolutionists of the Right were openly fighting 
against the Councils and supporting the exploiters of 
labor. The proclamation finishes by saying, "The Cen- 
tral Executive Committee, therefore, orders the Constit- 
uent Assembly dissolved." 

Workers of America: The Russian Soviet Govern- 
ment knows the history of all preceding revolutions, and 
at this time of the world crisis they stand firm, pro- 
foundly defending the class character of their revolution. 

They work and labor for the class union and com- 
plete fusion of workers of all races into one homogenous 
race, the race of economically free men. Will you stand 
by the Russian Revolution? 

6 



THE BOLSHEVIKS AND THE SOVIETS 

By Albert Rhys Williams 



INTRODUCTION 

Albert Rhys Williams was a war correspond- 
ent in Belgium and author of "In the Claws of 
the German Eagle." He went to Russia and 
for fifteen months lived in the villages with 
the peasants, in the Red Army with the sol- 
diers, and in the industries with the workers. 
He knew the people, as well as Lenin, 
Trotzky and all the others. His travels took 
him down the "Mother" Volga and through 
the beautiful Ukraine on the Dneiper, then 
through all the great cities of Russia and over 
6,000 miles of the Trans-Siberian Railway. 

He addressed the soldiers at the front, the 
great mass meetings of the People's House in 
Petrograd, and the Cirque Moderne, and the 
sailors of the Baltic Fleet. When the Germans 
began the drive on Petrograd he organized an 
International Legion for the defense of the Red 
Capitol. In the Foreign Office of the Soviet 
Government he helped to prepare the propa- 
ganda which was sent into Germany to stir up 
the revolution. 

Some of his experiences Mr. Williams has 
written for the "New Republic", "The Na- 
tion" and other journals. After his addresses 
in the Church of the Ascension, in New York, 
and at Ford Hall, in Boston, many questions 
were raised. Some of them are briefly answered 
here. 



What is the present government in Russia? 

An Industrial Republic, the first government of the 
working class in the world, owned by the workers and for 
the workers. 

When was it established? 

7 



Over a year ago ; to be exact, November 7th, 1917. 

Where is the capital of Russia? 

In Moscow, in the Kremlin. 

The Kremlin is a citadel with a wonderful collection 
of churches, graceful towers, green and golden domes, 
big bells and cannons and rich treasures of art. It is the 
pride of all the Russians. They say " above Moscow lies 
the Kremlin and above the Kremlin lies only the stars.' ' 
But now above the Kremlin flies the red banners of the 
new industrial republic : "Long live the Union of Soldiers, 
Sailors, Workingmen, Peasants and toiling Cossacks." 
"Hail to the Brotherhood of the Toilers of the World." 

What is the form of government in Russia? 

It is a government of Soviets. 

Instead of electing men at the polls, they are elected 
in the shops and unions. For example, every 500 workers 
in a munition factory select a delegate. The shoe factory 
elects a delegate, as do the clothing shops, the brick 
yards, glass works, and all the other industries which 
happen to be in that city. The different unions do like- 
wise. The regiments of soldiers and the sailors also elect 
their delegates ; likewise the teachers, the clerks, and the 
engineers who are organized. 

Is it true that the Soviets do not allow every- 
one to vote? 

It is true at the present time. The exploiters of labor, 
idle people living off interest, members of the Czar's 
family, criminals and the insane are not allowed to vote 
in Russia. The Soviet slogan is "A vote for everyone 
who works." Soon everyone in Russia will work for a 
living and that means that every man and woman over 
eighteen years of age will have the right to vote. Even 
at present 95 per cent in Russia can vote, while in the 
United States only about 65 per cent can vote. 

There is a Soviet in every city, village, district and 
county in Russia. 

It was through a land of Soviets that the Trans-Si- 
berian express had brought us across the great steel 
bridges, the Urals, the Taiga and the steppes. The train- 

8 



men spoke of their Soviet, the peasants of theirs, the 
miners had cheered us in the name of theirs. We had 
conferred with the Soviet of Central Siberia and the Far 
East Soviet. It was a Soviet world through which we 
had passed, and when we stepped from the train at Vla- 
divostok we found the Soviet there an exact copy of the 
one at Petrograd, seven thousand miles away. 

There is nothing more remarkable in all history than 
the fact that in a week after the Revolution one-sixth of 
the earth's surface should in every city and village bring 
forth this new state apparatus, that it should so manifest 
its worth, strike its roots deeper and deeper, crowd out all 
rivals, resist the shock of every attack, and after 15 
months hold undisputed sway from the White Sea on the 
North to the Black Sea on the South, from Petrograd 
upon the Baltic to Vladivostok on the Pacific. 

How can the people get their representative in the Soviet 
to do what they wish him to do? 

They blow the factory whistle and have a meeting; or the 
teachers' association or unions meet at a regular session. 
Then they tell their representative what they wish of him. If 
he doesn't act in accordance with their wishes they elect an- 
other. For example, in Petrograd in July, 1917, documents 
were published in the papers saying that some Bolsheviks were 
German agents. Then the men in the shops immediately re- 
called the Bolsheviks from the Soviet and put in Menshevik 
delegates. Later, when the workingmen discovered that all 
these documents were lies and forgeries, they sent back their 
old Bolshevik delegates and hundreds of new ones. 

This is the government of the towns, but what is the gov- 
ernment of all Russia? 

Each local Soviet elects a delegate to the All-Russian 
Assembly, which meets about every three months at Moscow. 
Altogether there are about 1500 delegates. 

"The delegates come from the Arctic, where it is nearly 
always cold, and from the Crimea, where it is nearly always 
warm. 

"There were fishermen from the Lena and shepherds 
from the Caucasus. There were Little Russians, merry-souled 
chaps, blue-eyed and fair-haired, who came from a land where 
the sun shines much and the earth yields plentifully. There 
were Big Russians, inured to hardship, their sterner struggle 
with the soil photographed upon their determined faces. 
Scattered among them were fair-haired Cossacks from the 
Don and dark-skinned Cossacks from the Urals, with a strain 

9 



of Tartar marked in the slant of their eyes and the color of 
their skin. Sometimes it was an Esthonian, a Pole, a Lett, a 
Lithuanian, or a member of one of the numerous Siberian 
tribes. All of Russia was gathered under that roof." — "THE 
RED HEART OF RUSSIA," by Bessie Beatty. 

AVhat does this gathering of workmen, peasants, soldiers 
and sailors do in the All-Russian Assembly? 

It decides all the great public questions like war, peace, 
lands, commerce, etc. When it adjourns, it leaves behind an 
Executive Committee of about 250 members, a body some- 
what like our Congress. 

What are the duties of the Executive Committee? 

It passes laws. One of the chief duties is to appoint, dis- 
miss, and control the Council of the People's Commissars, a 
body somewhat like our Cabinet. 

What is the difference between our Cabinet and the Coun- 
cil of People's Commissars? 

The members of the American Cabinet are appointed by 
the President. The members of the Russian Council of Peo- 
ple's Commissars are elected by the people. 

AVhat are the salaries of the Commissars of the Soviet 
Government? 

The largest salary that any official in the Soviet Govern- 
ment receives is 6 00 roubles a month ($60). 

Under the old government officials were paid enormous 
salaries. Most of them received as much in a week as a So- 
viet official now receives in a year. The Bolsheviks said that 
the pay of officials of a workingman's government should not 
be more than that of an average workingman. They feared the 
,gulf that must arise between well paid officials, able to main- 
tain a luxurious standard of living, and workingmen receiving 
only a living wage. They wished to avoid the creation of a new 
/bureaucracy. Careerism in public life was to be discouraged. 
No one can have cake until everyone had bread. They fixed 
the pay at $60, with $10 extra for each non-earning member. 
Lenin's wife works in the Department of Education, therefore 
Lenin receives only $6 a month. Trotzkyhas a wife and two 
children, therefore he gets $90 a month. 

When the Soviet Government moved to Moscow it took 
over one of the large hotels, the National, to live in. The first 
thing it did was to abolish expensive elaborate menus. The 
meals, instead of consisting of many dishes, were cut down to 
two. One could have soup and meat, and soup and kasha (a 
kind of porridge). Of course, there was tea. 

What are the advantages of the Soviet form of govern- 
ment over Congress? 

(a) A Soviet delegate comes from a group — a shop or a 
union, meeting regularly. It has a natural unity, A Congress- 

10 



man represents all sorts of people, irrespective of their work, 
who meet at the polls every two or four or six years; there is 
no other bond between them. 

(b) A Soviet representative is continuously in touch with 
the people he represents. A Congressman has no natural con- 
nection with his people. 

(c) The iSoviets are elected largely by occupations. They 
are full of miners who know mines; machinists who know ma- 
chines; peasants who know the land; teachers who know 
children and education. Congress is full of lawyers and poli- 
ticians and officegrabbers. 

(d) The Soviet is a center for the transaction of busi- 
ness by men who know their business. Congress is too often 
a talking-machine, an arena for playing party politics. 

What are some of the things which the Soviet Govern- 
ment has accomplished!? 

FIRST — It nationalized all the natural resources, the for- 
ests, mines, waterways, etc. 

SECOND 1 — It gave^all the land to the peasants. Each 
family was given as much land as it could work. This has 
made the peasants very happy and glad to support the Soviet. 

THIRD — It organized the great Red Army. 

FOURTH — "It swept the Secret Treaties into the ash bar- 
rel of history.'' 

FIFTH — It stirred up the great Revoution in Germany 
and pulled the Kaiser from his throne. 

SIXTH — It opened up thousands of schools, libraries, 
workmen's theaters, newspapers and postoffices. 

SEVENTH — It gave the factories, shops and mines to the 
workers. Some of them were owned by the State; others came 
directly under workmen's control. 

What is meant by workmen's control? 

It means that a committee elected by the workmen take 
part in the management of the plant. 

"I mean by control," said Trotzky, "that we Will see to it 
that the factory is run not from the point of view of private 

profit, but from the point of view of the social welfare 

For example, we will not allow the capitalist to shut up his 
factory in order to starve his workmen into submission, or be- 
cause it is not yielding him a profit. If it is turning out eco- 
nomically a needed product, it must be kept running. If the 
capitalist gives it up, he will lose it altogether, for a board of 
directors) chosen by the workmen will be put in charge. 

"Again, 'control' implies that the books and correspond- 
ence of the concern will be open to the public, so that hence- 
forth there will be no industrial secrets. If this concern hits 
upon a better process or device, it will be given to other con- 
cerns in the same branch of industry. Thus the public will 
promptly realize the utmost possible benefit from the find." — - 

11 



From an interview with Trotzky by Professor E. A. Ross of 
Wisconsin University. 

When the workers took over the factories and mines, did 
they not make many mistakes? 

They did. Lack of experience and technical skill led them 
to many blunders. But they learned quickly, and after a time 
many factories turned out more products than before. 

As soon as the workmen found the factories really in their 
hands there came a change in their minds. Under the Ke- 
rensky regime they tended to elect a' foreman who would let 
them do as they pleased. Under their own government, the 
Soviet, they began to elect as foremen those who put discip- 
line into the shop and raised the production. 

In the so-called "American Works" at Vladivostok, the 
wheels, frames and brakes of cars were assembled, and the 
cars sent out over the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the Ke- 
renskl regime these shops were hotbeds of trouble.. The 6000 
workmen on the pay roll were turning out but 18 cars a day. 

The Soviet Committee closed the plant down and put the 
men to work in other places. Then ^reorganized the shops 
and started up with a force of 1,800 men. In the underframe 
section, instead of 1,400 there were 350, but by means of 
short-cuts, introduced by the workers themselves, the output 
of that department was increased. Altogether, the 1,800 men 
on the new pay roll were turning out 12 cars a day — an ef- 
ficiency increase of more than 100 per cent per man. 

I was standing with the Bolshevik president on the hills, 
overlooking the shops below. He was listening to the clank of 
the cranes and the stamp of the trip hammers ringing up 
from the valley. 

"That seems to be sweet music to your ears," I said. 

"Yes," he replied, "the old revolutionists used to make 
a noise with bombs, but this is the noise of the new revolu- 
tionists hammering out a new social order." 

What has the Soviet done to give good houses to the 
people? 

There were millions of people in Russia living in poor, 
dark rooms. On the other hand, there were thousands of pal- 
aces and fine homes well furnished and well lighted which 
were occupied by but a few people. The Soviets said this is 
all wrong; "You who build the great houses should live in 
them." So the people moved in. Now there are hundreds of 
thousands of people in Russia who, for the first time, have a 
decent place to live in. 

What has the Soviet Government done to the church and 
religion? 

It gave religion the same freedom it has in America. It 
separated the church from the State, so that now all churches 
are on the same footing in Russia. The Catholic, the Protest- 

12 



ant, the Jew, can worship as he pleases. The Soviets have 
made the first great attempt to put into practice the teachings 
of Jesus. Jesus wanted a social order where every man would 
get a fair chance; that is what the Soviet is doing. 

What have the Soviets done for the women of Russia? 

Women have the same political, economic and social 
rights as men. The Bolshevik Government provides free care 
for women 16 weeks before, while, and after they become 
mothers. If they go back to work they are allowed to work 
but four hours a day. Women have full rights over their prop- 
erty, the right of divorce the same as men, and in the shops 
arq on the same footing. "Together men and women were 
slaves, now together they are free." 

How is justice administered under the Soviets? 

Justice is very simple in Russia now. The old laws of 
Russia were very bad and the Soviet Government had to re- 
build the whole thing. In the meantime a revolutionary tri- 
bunal which hears all cases was established. Sometimes law- 
yers are not present at all, but people defend themselves; and 
their friends come forward to speak for them. The principle 
of right and wrong guides the tribunals, legal tricks and tech- 
nicalities are out of court. 

What has the Soviet done for amusements in Russia? 

Workmen Theatres have been established in hundreds 
of places, and in these the best plays are given. There are 
thousands of workmen who are actors. The People's Theatre 
in Petrograd is managed by the wife of Maxim Gorky. There 
is more good music in Russia than ever before. 

Under the Soviet, then, is there great happiness in Rus- 
sia? Is it the millennium on earth? 

There is much cold and hunger in Russia now and many 
babies have died for lack of milk in Moscow and Petrograd. 
The railroads are broken down, and while the rest of Europe 
has peace the workmen and peasants of Russia by the hun- 
dreds of thousands must go out to fight and to die. But they 
do not blame this upon the Soviets, but upon the Allies, who 
have cut off the food supply of Siberia. 

How did the Soviet show its interest in the American 
working cass? 

It held thousands of meetings to protest against the mur- 
der of Mooney. The workingmen of Petrograd went to the 
American Ambassador and told him Mooney was their brother 
and that he must be freed. 

Did the Soviet pass any laws for the benefit of the Ameri- 
can working class? 

A great many. For example: the Soviet desired to import 
harvesters and other machinery from America. They declared 

13 



they would receive no machinery from America which was not 
made under a living wage in an eight-hour day, with no night 
work for women, etc. No machinery, they said, would be al- 
lowed in Russia which did not bear the O. K. of committees of 
the workingmen where the articles were made. 

What else has the Soviet done for which all America 
should be grateful? 

It has saved hundreds of thousands of American lives, 
some say 500,000, others say more. 

How has the Soviet saved so many American lives? 

Because it did all it could to bring about the great revo- 
lution in Germany and Austria, which, in turn, suddenly 
brought about the end of the great war. Our military experts 
were saying that the war would last six months or two years 
more, and that it would take perhaps a million American lives 
in order to get to the Rhine. The Teuton armies were way 
down upon the soil of Prance and Belgium and Italy, but they 
suddenly stopped fighting. Why? Because the Revolution 
started back home. 

How did the Russian Soviet make the Great Revolutions 
in Austria and Germany which helped stop the war, and thus 
saved the lives of so many Americans? 

The Soviet sent hundreds of agitators into Germany and 
Austria, who told the people to make a Revolution as they had 
done in Russia. The Russian Soviet also published millions of 
copies of papers in different languages — German, Hungarian, 
Czech, Slovak, etc. These papers were dropped by aeroplanes, 
blown by wind, smuggled in boxes and carried by prisoners 
into Germany. 

In an illustrated paper sent over, there is a picture show- 
ing a workman tearing the Imperial eagles off the palace, and 
below the crowd is making a bonfire of them. The paper ex- 
plains the picture to the Germans in these words: 

"On the roof of a palace a workingman is tearing down 
the hated emblems of autocracy. On the street the people are 
burning up the Imperial eagles. A soldier is telling the people 
that the overthrow of autocracy is only the first step on the 
way to the Social Revolution. It is very easy to overthrow the 
Imperial Government, German comrades. It rests only upon 
those blind soldiers who support it with their bayonets. The 
Russian soldiers only opened their eyes and the Czar's gov- 
ernment has disappeared. When will the soldiers in other 
lands ruled by a Kaiser open their eyes?" 

Here is one of the appeals which was sent out to the Ger- 
man fleet: 

"The Revolutionary sailors of the Baltic Fleet, in confer- 
ence assembled, send their greetings of brotherhood to their 
heroic German comrades who have taken part in the insurrec- 
tion at Kiel. 

14 



"The Russian sailors are in complete possession of their 
battleships. The Sailors' Committee are the High Command. 
The yacht of the former Czar, the 'Polar Star/ is now the head- 
quarters of the Fleet Committee, which is composed of com- 
mon sailors, one from each ship. 

"Since the Revolution, the Russian Fleet is as busy as 
formerly, but the Russian sailors will not use the fleet to fight 
their brothers, but everywhere to fight under the Red Flag of 
the International for the freedom of the Proletariat through- 
out the entire world." 

Millions of roubles, and much energy of Bolsheviks like 
Lenin and Trotzky were spent on this propaganda. At last it 
won out. The great Revolution in Germany came and the 
Great War ended. 

Nearly all* Americans who have been to any Soviets and 
know the Bolsheviks say that the Soviet Government should be 
recognized by America as the real government of Russia. 

"It is absolutely necessary for us to believe in the Soviet. 
.... The Soviet is the soul of Russia. — and more .... the 
Soviet has become its communicating nervous system and its 
deciding brain 

"Let us abandon every word of unnecessary criticism 
against Russia. It is a Soviet House. If the Soviets choose 
Lenin to rule their house, it is their house. If they choose 
some one else to rule their house, it is their house. 

". . . . It is a republic of Soviets, and in the mouth of 
every American the word Soviet must become a word of friend- 
ship, a word of comradeship, a word of great hope." — Chicago 
Daily News. 

"Russia is a government of the workingmen and the sol- 
diers, of the peasants and the mechanics. It is a democracy 
which is striving for the uplift of the great masses. It is a de- 
mocracy which comes as near being representative of the soil as 
it would be possible to find anywhere. It has mud on its boots, 
hair on its face, and the love of freedom in its heart. They say, 
'the Russian democracy is red/ Yes, full of good red blood — 
you will find it isn't yellow. No less than 60 per cent of the 
Russians are Bolsheviks." — Colonel W. B. Thompson. 

Are the Socialists the only ones who believe in the So- 
viets? 

No; all classes of Americans; Colonel W. B. Thompson 
of Wall Street; Colonel Raymond Robins, head of the Ameri- 
can Red Cross, who knew Lenin and Trotzky; Major Thacher; 
Bessie Beatty of the San Francisco Bulletin; Louise Bryant of 
the Bell Syndicate; Madeline Z. Doty of Harper's; Louis Ed- 
gar Brown of the Chicago Daily News; Dr. Charles F. Kunz; 
Jerome Davis, acting head of the American Y. M. C. A. in Rus- 
sia; John Reed of the Liberator, and scores of others. 

15 



How do we know that the Soviet is the government that 
the people of Russia want? 

It is the only government that has shown any strength, 
and the only one that the people have fought and died for. 
The last Sunday in July an election was held in Vladivostok. 
There were 17 tickets. Everybody said the contest was be- 
tween the Cadet Party and the Moderate Socialist block. It 
was not supposed that the Bolsheviks could cast any large vote 
because their leaders were in prison and their papers sup- 
pressed. But when the votes were counted, it was found that 
the Cadets had 4.000, the Socialists 5,000, and the Bolsheviks 
12,000. The Bolsheviks got more votes than all the other 16 
parties put together. 

If the people of Russia want a Soviet Government, have 
we any right to make them take our kind of government? 

The kind of a government they want is their business. If 
at the point of the bayonet we compel them to take our kind of 
government we are doing the same thing as Imperial Germany. 

"The people of Russia intend hereafter to own Russia and 
to govern Russia in their own interests. In Russia, practically 
speaking, there is no middle class of small property owners, 
business men and land owners, such as is characteristic of 
England, France and the United States. Virtually the entire 
population of Russia consists of peasants and industrial 
workers. That is the reason why the Government of the Bol- 
sheviki — the majority — is entirely made up of representatives 
of these workers." — Col. W. B. Thompson, head of the Ameri- 
can Red Cross Mission in Russia. 

Has it been an easy task for the Soviet to do its great 
work? 

No; the workingmen have had tremendous difficulties. . 

FIRST, hundreds of years of the rule of Czars had kept 
the people browbeaten, poor and oppressed. 

SECOND, three years and seven months of war had bled 
the country white; 3,500,000 Russians had been killed, 4,000,- 
000 wounded, there were 350,000 war orphans and 200,000 
deaf, dumb and blind. The Russians lost more than Belgium, 
France, Italy and America combined. 

THIRD, the railways were broken down, the mines had 
been flooded, the food and fuel were nearly gone. 

FOURTH, the Czechs, supported by the Japanese, French, 
British and Americans, cut off their grain supply from Siberia. 
The Germans and Austrians cut off their food supply from the 
Ukraine. 

FIFTH, 12 000,000 soldiers were suddenly demobilized. 
America had only 4,000,000 soldiers, and yet we expect to take 
a year before they are all home from France and demobilized. 

SIXTH, they were sabotaged by the old officials, and de- 

16 



serted by the upper classes, boycotted by the Allies and nearly 
guillotined by the Germans. 

Are the difficulties which the Russians face in their Revo- 
lution greater than America faced in hers? 

Much greater. 

(1) In the American Revolution there were 3,000,000 
people. In the French Revolution there were 23,000,000. But 
in the Russian Revolution there are 180,000,000 spread over 
a country three times as large as America. 

(2) The French Revolution and the American Revolu- 
tion were largely political, while the Russian Revolution, is 
political and social. 

(3) In our Revolution the foreign countries let us alone 
or helped us, while all the foreign governments today are fight- 
ing Russia. 

(4) It took us in America over eight years before we set- 
tled down to a firm, stable government. The Russians have 
had less than two years. 

What did the upper classes do to make disorder in Russia? 

They gave huge sums of money to the old officials, and to 
bank clerks to stop work. They said that the workingmen did 
not have brains enough to run things. But the Soldiers and 
Sailors took charge of the banks and the governmental of- 
fices themselves. 

How else did the upper class try to overthrow the Soviet 
Government? 

(a) They hoped to starve the people into submission. 
Roubinsky, a great capitalist, said, "the bony hand of hunger 
will clutch the people by the throat and bring them to their 
senses." But the Soviets brought in food, (b) Then the upper 
class hoped that bad sewage and the melting snow would 
bring cholera. But the Soviets organized sanitary commissions 
and stopped the epidemics, (c) Then they tried to get the 
people in the cities drunk in order that they should go out and 
loot, burn and kill. This was called a wine pogrom. They 
would suddenly open up hidden wine callers and give every- 
body all the wine he could drink. The Soviets stopped this by 
destroying 400 such cellars and pumping the wine out into the 
canals. 

How else did the upper classes try to overthrow the So- 
viets? 

They went away to the far ports of Russia and organized 
military forces. Large armies were led by the Czar's generals 
against the workmen's government. 

What kind of soldiers did the Soviets have, to beat off its 
enemies? 

There were two divisions: (1) the Red Army; they were 
the regular soldiers, who received about $30 a month. (2) 

17 



the Red Guards; these were workingmen in the factories and 
peasants on the farms. When danger threatened, they left 
their plows and dropped their tools and, picking up their guns, 
went out to the defense of their government. 

Regiments of officers, monarchists, adventurers, Khun- 
Khuz bandits and Japanese mercenaries were formed in Man- 
churia and kept attacking the frontiers of the workmen's re- 
public. 

It was the regular division of the Red Army that bore 
the brunt of these raids. As soon as the enemy broke through, 
the cry of "The Socialist Fatherland is in danger!" was 
raised. Into every village and factory hurried the call to arms. 
Each formed its little group of Red Guards, and along the 
roads and pathways they marched up into the Manchurian 
Mountains, singing sometimes a revolutionary hymn and some- 
times folk songs of the village. Poorly equipped and poorly 
fed, they voluntarily advanced to pit themselves against a mer- 
ciless foe, splendidly armed and trained. 

The Red Army and the Red Guard showed a lack of the 
iron discipline of the regular national armies. But it had a 
spirit which the others lacked. I talked much with these peas- 
ants and workers who for weeks had been lying out on the 
hill-sides in the rain and the cold. "What made you come and 
what keeps you here?" I asked. "Well — millions of us dark 
people," they replied, "had to go out and die for the govern- 
ment of the Czar in the old days; surely we would all be 
cowards if we didn't go out and fight for a government that is 
our own." 

Was the Soviet abTe to defeat all its enemies? 

.Every one of them. Not a single member of any of these 
Anti-Soviet governments dared set his foot upon Russian or 
Siberian soil. If he had done so he would have been locked up. 

Who are the enemies of the Soviet Government? 

(a) The landlords, who want to take the land away from 
the peasants, (b) The capitalists, who want to take the fac- 
tories and banks away from the workingmen. (c) The offi- 
cers, who want to take control of the army away from the sol- 
diers, (d) The( monarchists, who want to take the govern- 
ment away from the people. 

But they could do nothing against the workmen of Russia 
until the Allies came to their help. 

I. 

Has not the Soviet Government of Russia killed great 
numbers of officers, the landowners, and the rich? 

On the contrary, very few. In the future we will ask, 
"How can we explain that in a Revolution so big and so deep 
such a handful were killed?" There have been many wild 
tales about the number of victims. But no one says that there 

18 



were more than 40,000 killed in the first year of the Revolu- 
tion; and many of these were Bolsheviks who were killed in 
defending the Soviets against unlawful attacks. Russia has a 
population of 180,000,000; that means that in this civil war 
less than one out of every 4,000 people in Russia were killed. 
In the first year of the American Civil War one out of every 
300 was killed. In the South, thousands of American men 
were sacrificed to perpetuate slavery. Russia is fighting, not 
to perpetuate injustice and crime, but to establish freedom. 

Have not Marie Spiridonova and Breshkovskaya (Babush- 
ka), the two great women of the Revolution, been killed by the 
Bolsheviks? 

The newspapers have killed them several times in order 
to make the people who love these two women hate the Bol- 
sheviks. But both are living. Marie Spiridonova is now work- 
ing with the Bolsheviks. 

What is the "Red Terror"? 

It means that whenever anyone is caught killing a member 
of the Soviet Government, or trying to kill a member, or of 
plotting to overthrow the Soviet Government, he is arrested. 
Then he is placed on trial before a Revolutionary Tribunal. 
If he is adjudged guilty he is imprisoned or executed. If found 
innocent, he is promptly released. In other countries we 
would call this preserving law and order. 

"The terrorism under which the limited propertyrowning 
class is living is slight compared with the terrorism in which 
the workingman and peasant lives in fear of the return of the 
old regime. " — Colonel W. B. Thompson, Chairman of the 
American Red Cross Mission in Russia. 

Why, then, are the papers full of these stories of loot and 
murdier and massacre? 

Because the great interests are making a poison gas at- 
tack against the Soviets and the Bolsheviks. 

"What is the source of the lies about Russia which are so 
systematically disseminated in this country? A couple of weeks 
ago the statement was published on the front pages of the 
Eastern newspapers that on November 10th the Bolsheviki 
were to indulge in a general massacre of all their class oppo- 
nents. But what actually happened on or about that day? The 
following dispatch, published in the New York World, may 
give some idea: 'The Soviet Council in Petrograd has adopted 
a resolution giving amnesty to all arrested hostages and per- 
sons alleged to be involved in plots against the Soviets, except 
those whose detention is deemed necessary as a guarantee for 
the security of the Bolsheviki who have fallen into enemy 
hands.' Instead of a St. Bartholomew, a feast of reconciliation. 
The lie is published in the most conspicuous part of all the 
newspapers in the country. The truth is published in an in- 
conspicuous part of one newspaper. Is the case against the 

19 



Bolsheviki so weak that it has to be sustained by lies?"— New 
Republic, November 16th. 

It is not true, then, that the Bolsheviks wish to kill the 
upper class? 

No; they only wish to set them to work. 

II. 
Has not the Soviet Government made general chaos and 
disorder in Russia? 

On the contrary. It has saved the country from these 
evils. Correspondents tell us that the streets of Moscow and 
Petrograd are as safe, if not safer, to walk upon than the 
streets of New York and Chicago. We came across, 6,000 miles 
on the Trans-Siberian Railway as quietly as going from New 
York to Washington, and safer than in Brooklyn. Order was 
asserting itself on every hand. Then Allied intervention came 
and now tens of thousands of people have been killed and 
wounded, villages burned, tunnels and bridges have been blown 
up, fifty miles of tracks torn up, and the Omsk Government is 
reported to have taken 1,714,000 bushels of wheat, which is 
needed for hungry Russia, and turning it into alcoholic liquor 
to make the people drunk. 

in. 

Has not the Soviet Government refused to pay the na- 
tional debt? 

It is true they repudiated that debt when the Allies did 
not come to their help. 

It was the Czar who borrowed the money from France and 
England in 1906-10. He used it in employing a big army to 
put down the Russian workingmen. He used it to send 300,- 
000 men and women and children into the horrors of the awful 
Siberian mines and prisons. The Socialists warned the bank- 
ers of France not to give the money to the Czar. Even Milyu- 
kov warned them. The Socialists said if they came into power 
they would not pay back the money which was used to sup- 
press, to jail and to kill them, and so they did exactly what 
they said they would do. But even rather than have a bloody 
war over the debt, the Soviet would prefer to compromise. 

IV. 

Is it not true that the workmen's Soviet does not trust 
the educated and' upper classes? 

They have lost faith in the so-called "governing classes. " 
The workers and peasants say, "We used to toil and slave and 
let you run the world. But what kind of a world was it that 
you made? It was full of strife, slums, awful poverty, ending 
in this horrible war. If you are not criminals you are terrible 
bunglers. You have shown yourselves unfit to have power and 
we do not intend to let you have it. True, as workingmen, we 

20 



will make mistakes, too. But we prefer to suffer from our own 
mistakes and not from yours. " 

Why has there been a break between the educated (intel- 
ligentsia) and the great masses of Russia? 

Because the attitude of the educated was, "Let the people 
rule, but let them rule through us." But the people of Russia 
said, "We want to rule ourselves and in our own way." How- 
ever, the educated are now working for the Soviet. For the 
first time the working class is buying brains quite as the capi- 
talist class has done before. 

V. 

Did the Soviets dissolve the Constituent Assembly of Rus- 
sia that met a year ago? 

They did, because it was the only thing that could save 
Russia and the Revolution. Nearly all observers who were on 
the spot agree to this. The best proof of this is the fact that 
when it was a matter of life and death to the Constituent As- 
sembly 15,000 paraded for it. If it was a matter of life or 
death to the Soviet a million would have paraded for it; more 
than that, they would have fought and died for it. 

VI. 

Did not the Soviet Government make peace with the Im- 
perial German Government? 

It did because the old soldier army recruited under the 
Czar refused to fight any longer. The soldiers said they had 
enough of fighting without food or clothes and that they had 
nothing to fight for. The Russian workingmen sent an appeal 
to the German workingmen not to advance upon the soil of the 
New Russian Republic. To their eternal honor, thousands of 
German workingmen soldiers refused to advance. They were 
shot by their officers, and the main German Imperial army 
marched on against Moscow and Petrograd. The Germans said 
they would not stop until the Soviet signed the Brest-Litovsk 
peace. There was no other way out. Lenin said, that it was 
"a shameful" peace, a "robber's" peace, a "cuth -throat" peace, 
but the Soviet Government had to sign. The Russian workmen 
then said, "The old army has gone; now we shall build up a 
new Red Army. Meantime we shall try to make a revolution 
in Germany. If that does not come in six months or a year, 
then we shall turn our Red Army against the Germans." 
Slowly they built up a new strong Red Army, but before they 
could use it, the revolution came in Germany. 

Whom have the workingmen of Russia elected as Presi- 
dent, or Premier of the Council of People's Commissars? 

Nicholas Lenin (Vladimir Hitch Ulianoff). 

Lenin is forty-eight years of age. He was born of a 
noble family. When he was seventeen years of age his brother 
was hanged for plotting to kill the Czar. He was expelled from 

21 



the law school for preaching Socialism. Later we find him in 
Siberia charged with founding the Union for the Struggle to 
Liberate the Artizan Class, then as student in Paris learning 
languages; then in Switzerland writing books on politics and 
economics; later again in London as the "leader" of the Bol- 
shevik Party. When the Revolution of 1905 began he rushed 
to Petrograd and two years later found himself again in exile. 
For eight years he labored like a galley slave, writing, speak- 
ing and organizing. The outbreak of the great war caught him 
in Austria trying to stir the workers to rebellion. 

In April, 1917, Lenin hastened home and was given a 
great ovation as his train pulled into Petrograd. He looked 
the field over and then told the workingmen and soldiers: 
" You made this Revolution, and it belongs to you. Do not let 
the usurpers keep it away from you; take the power into your 
own hands." After the bourgeois showed they could not run 
the Government of Russia, the workers, soldiers and peasants 
took Lenin's advice and took the government in their own 
hands. They made Lenin their Premier and have kept him on 
the job ever since. 

Most Hated and Most Loved. 

Lenin is probably the most hated and the most loved man 
in Europe. The love for him comes from the great masses of 
the people; the hate for him comes from the old crowd of no- 
bles, landlords and capitalists. A dozen times with dagger and 
bomb and pistol they have tried to kill him; twice indeed the 
assassin's bullet entered his body. But he still lives to smile 
and preach his gospel of revolution and of work. He works 
hard, himself — eighteen hours a day. Out of this work there 
will come for the masses a new society, when the toilers need 
work but six hours or three hours a day. The rest he can give 
to his mind, to music, and to travel. Lenin believes this is com- 
ing and coming soon. 

Reported Dead, but Lived. 

When Lenin's death was reported in this country, on Sep- 
tember 2nd, 1918, the "New York Times" wrote: 

"An American .... who had rare opportunities of study- 
ing Lenin at close range, in the midst of the Russian turmoil, 
described him as 'the greatest living statesman in Europe.' 

". . . . He endeavored to put into practice theories which 
he had been preaching for many years before the Russian 
Revolution came to pass. In those years he conceived and 
worked out in his mind a principle of social revolution which 
distinguished him from other Socialist thinkers by his un- 
compromising appeal to the spirit of class revolt. 

"This spirit as an indispensable weapon in the construc- 
tion of an ideal Socialist state he preached with; increasing 
fervor as the years went by, supplementing .... it with some- 
thing that was essentially lacking in the Marxian doctrine, 

22 






namely, a political design under which the economic aims of a 
thorough-going Socialism might be put into effect. This po- 
litical design found its expression, so far as it has gone, in the 
present Soviet Government. " 

Whom have the workingmen of Russia elected as the 
Commissar of War to defend them against enemies? 

Leon Trotzky (Bronstein.) 

In 1900 we find Trotzky in solitary confinement in the 
prison of Odessa. The charge against him was that he had 
called a meeting out in the woods to organize a laborers- 
union. When his term was up he did it again. Then they ex- 
iled him to Siberia; twice he escaped, one time driving a rein- 
deer 500 miles across the Arctic snows. As a war correspond- 
ent in the Balkans, he showed the atrocities on both sides. 
Olgin says of him: 

"His house in Vienna was a poor man's house — poorer 
than that of an American workingman earning eighteen dol- 
lars a week, and containing less furniture than was neces- 
sary for comfort. Trotzky had been poor all his life." But 
his spirit has always, been rich, blazing hot. He never lost 
heart, even though he was hounded from one country to an- 
other by the Russian Secret Police. He came to New York 
in 1916, but when the Revolution broke out he started home. 
The British held him up at Halifax, but at last he arrived in 
Petrograd, to be greeted with great joy by the workingmen: 
they finally made him the President of their great Soviet, of 
the Red Commune. 

Was Trotzky Right? 

Trotzky saw that the old Russian army was throwing 
down its guns and running away from the trenches. iSo he 
said: "This old army will not fight. We must have a new 
army — a Red Army; meantime we must have peace." He went 
to Brest-Litovsk and told the German Generals to their faces 
that they were robbers and cut-throats and Imperialists. He 
said, "With the sword you are writing upon the bodies of liv- 
ing nations. You make us sign this peace at the bayonet's 
point, but some day you will fall either by our Red Army, or 
from Revolution within your own country. " 

Trotzky was right. Almost always he has been right. 

"Besides .... do you imagine that capitalist control is 
going to survive everywhere save in Russia? In all the war- 
ring countries of Europe I expect to see social revolution after 
the war. So long as they remain in the trenches the soldiers 
think of little but their immediate problem — to kill your op- 
ponent before he kills you. But when they go home and find 
their families scattered, perhaps their homes desolate, their 
Industry ruined, and their taxes five times as high as before, 
they will begin to consider how this awful calamity was 
brought upon them. They will be open to the demonstration 

23 



that the scramble of capitalists and groups of capitalists for 
foreign markets and exploitable 'colonial* areas, imperialism, 
secret diplomacy, and armament rivalry promoted by munition 
makers, brought on the war. Only when they see that the capi- 
talist class is responsible for this terrible disaster to humanity, 
they will rise and wrest the control from its hands. To be sure, 
a proletarian Russia cannot get very far in realizing its aims if 
the rest of the world remains under capitalist regime. But 
that will not happen." 

Who have the workingmen chosen to be Commissar of 
Education? 

M. Lunacharsky. 

Lunacharsky is one of the noted writers and scholars of 
Russia. "Our first aim is to struggle against darkness," he 
said. "The expenditure on education must stay high. A gen- 
erous budget for public instruction is the honor and glory of 
every people." Now every child in Russia attends public school. 
The children of the upper classes must attend the same schools 
as those of the workers, for all private schools have been abol- 
ished. 

One of Lunacharsky's aids in the educational work is 
Maxim Gorky, one of the greatest of Russian writers. Gorky 
has been against the Bolsheviks, but lately he has joined 
them. 

Whom did the workingmen elect as Commissar of Public 
Security? 

Alexandra Kollontay, a woman who, among other great 
works in behalf of the masses, established the Palace of 
Motherhood. Kollontay is one of the leading sociologists in 
Russia, and has written many books on mothers and children. 

At one time Kollontay called a meeting of all workers in 
her department, even the servants. 

"She was very frank with them at this meeting. Russia, 
she explained, was bankrupt; there were very little funds to 
carry on charitable work; no one was to receive even a 'good' 
salary; she herself was to get $60 a month, which is the sal- 
ary of every commissar. 

"This came as a great blow to the professional social 
workers, who up to this time had received as much as $10,000 
a year. Kollontay shocked them even more by announcing 
that hereafter all employes should continue to be present at 
meetings, and that the same consideration would be given to 
suggestions from scrubwomen as from professional philanthro- 
pists." 

"I used to go up to Kollantay's office on the Kazenskaya 
and she explained many of her problems to me. She was very 
much moved by the way some of her lower employes had re- 
sponded to her appeal in this crisis. It really was astonisihing 
how much many of these simple and uneducated old servants 

24 






understood about the work. And when they once realized that 
they were a part of the larger plan they gladly worked sixteen 
hours a day to help Kollontay, whom they all called 'Little 
Comrade\ ,, — Louise Bryant, ''Six Red Months in Russia. " 

Whom have the working class of Russia chosen as Com- 
missar of Foreign Affairs (State Department)? 

Gurge Tschitscherin. He came from an old line of diplo- 
mats in Russia. Disgusted with the lying and stealing of the 
old order, he resigned his position in the London Embassy and 
joined the Bolsheviks. 

Can these men be dismissed from their positions ? 

At any time the Executive Committee may recall them. 

"While the Bolshevik control of the Soviet organization 
has not been impaired since the formation of the Government, 
the form of the government is such that this control may be 
changed whenever the peasants and workmen desire a change." 
— Major Thatcher. 

To what party does Lenin, Trotzky, Lunacharsky, Kollon- 
tay and Tschitscherin belong? 

They belong to the Communist Party, popularly known as 
Bolshevik. 

What does the word "Bolshevik" mean? 

The word "Bolshevik" is the Russian word for "one of 
the majority," as opposed to and distinguished from the word 
"Menshevik," or "minority." It is a party which now has a 
majority of delegates of the workers on its side, and conse- 
quently the majority of the delegates in the Soviets. It has 
changed its name at the present time to Communist Party. It 
must be clearly kept in mind that the Bolsheviks, though com- 
posing the main party in the Soviets, are only one among sev- 
eral parties there. 

Are the Bolsheviks intelligent people? 

The more educated a workingman is, the more likely he 
is to be a Bolshevik. The sailors and the Lettish folk in Rus- 
sia are the most literate people in Russia. Nearly all of them 
can read and write, and nearly all of them are Bolsheviks. 

Why did the working class of Russia select the Bolsheviks 
for leaders instead of others? 

Other political parties have had eloquent and sincere 
men, but they only talked about giving the people what they 
wanted — land, peace, and factories. The Bolshevik really 
gave these things to the people. 

Why did not the people choose Breshkovskaya, Tschai- 
kovsky, Kropotkin, such well-known revolutionists? 

These leaders are more than seventy years of age. TJhey 
were great, noble spirits, but they have lost touch with the 
masses — they are the leaders of the past. Most of the Bolshevik 

25 



leaders are young men. Four out of every five in the Soviet 
are under thirty-five years of age. They are the leaders of the 
present and the future. 

Why did the Russian people continue to keep the Bolshe- 
viks in office? 

(a) Because they have proved able and good leaders, 
who did what the people wanted, (b) Because most of the 
Bolshevik leaders came out of the ranks of the people them- 
selves, and understand the people's ideas and speak the peo- 
ple's language, (c) Because the capitalists and the rich have 
called them "murderers and German agents." The people 
know that these are lies and that the Bolshevik leaders are 
the most honest and the most sacrificing men in the world. 

"I do not claim that the Bolsheviks are angels. These 
men who have made the Soviet Government in Russia, if they 
must fail, will fail with clean shield and clean hearts, having 
striven for an ideal which will live beyond them. Even if 
they fail, they will none the less have written a page of his- 
tory more daring than any other which I can remember 
in the history of the human race. They are writing it amid 
showers of mud from all the meaner spirits in their country, 
in yours a^id in my own. But, when the thing is over, the mud 
will vanish like black magic at noon, and that page will be as 
white as the snows of Russia, and the writing on it as bright 
as the gold domes that I used to see glittering in the sun as I 
looked from my windows in Petrograd. 

"And when in after years men read that page they will 
judge your country and mine, your race and mine, by the help 
or hindrance they gave to the writing of it." — Arthur Ran- 
some. Correspondent of the London Daily News. 

"The Bolsheviks most of all have helped to make the war 
not only for democracy, but a war at last of democracy and by 
democracy. The Bolshevik revolution is the one fertilizing 
force that throughout .Europe is making governments answer- 
able to peoples." — Professor Kallen, of Wisconsin University. 

In what way do the Russians have respect for America? 

They have great respect for the fine products of our indus- 
try, and our wonderful machinery, particularly our harvesters, 
etc. 

Coming out of Siberia, a little Russian about seventeen 
years of age came on a train, carrying a gun as big as himself. 
He was a Bolshevik, going out to fight Semenoff, the Cossack 
General, who wanted to destroy the Workmen's Republic. 
When he found that we were Americans, he was wild with 
happiness. "You see, I work in the railroad shops," he said, 
"and I like engines when they are so full of steam and strong 
and ready to pull the big trains out on the track. I could al- 
most kiss them. And you Americans, you make the best en- 
gines in the world. I almost love you all." 

26 



What things in America are there that Russians do not 
like? 

They do not like our blacklists and lockouts, our hired 
thugs to beat up strikers, our very rich living in palaces and 
our very poor living in slums. They do not like the way 
America treats men like Mooney and other fighters for labor. 

"Nearly all regard America as a hopelessly 'capitalistic' 
society and expect that in a few years Russia will far surpass 
America in the realization of democracy." — Prof. Ross, of 
Wisconsin University. 

What else do the Russians not like about America? 

They do not like our ignorance about the great world 
movement of Socialism; they look upon us as a nation of po- 
litical illiterates, for four out of every five Russians are So- 
cialists. 

"Nearly everybody in Russia was a Socialist, the only 

difference being in degree That being the case, the 

notion continually advanced in certain British and American 
quarters of taking by the hand these simple children of na- 
ture and leading them kindly up the primary democratic 
principles of Thomas Jefferson and Lloyd George was always 

a joke Among the Russians, evolution had long passed 

beyond all such primitive processes and democracy means in- 
dustrial democracy as much as it means the right to vote, and 
industrial democracy means the division of the products of 
industry among those whose toil had created such products. 

"In other words, it meant the practical elimination of div- 
idends and interest and with this, it was hoped, there would 
be an end of want on one side and luxury on the other. 

"For some reason, never well explained, it was always 
extremely difficult to get in America any recognition of these 
facts." — Charles Edward Russell, "Unchained Russia." 

What is the root of trouble between America and Russia? 

It is this misunderstanding. Americans think that the 
American Government is about the best there is in the world, 
and that Russia ought to have a government and a society like 
America's. The Russians do not think so. They want one oC 
their own, a Soviet, a great, new experiment in democracy. 

But have the Russians education enough to govern them- 
selves? 

While fully 60 per cent of them cannot read or write, on 
the other hand they are intelligent people. 

Rodzianko, the ex-President of the Duma, told me that a 
French engineer came to his estate to set up an engine for his 
saw mill. He worked for three days, but the engine would not 
go. Then one of his old peasants, who had been looking on, 
said, "Let me try to put it together." Within five minutes the 
engine was set up and running perfectly. 

27 



That, to Rodzianko, was an example of the native soil- 
wisdom of the mass. They are not learned in books, but they 
are learned in life. With the same sort of minds, not twisted 
by tradition or warped by prejudice, they look at all questions. 

Do the Russians understand the great social and business 
problems enough to organize a great, new society? 

The average Russian workman far better understands all 
economic and social questions than does the average so-called 
educated American. The workingmen and peasants of Russia 
read or have read to them tens of thousands of papers and 
pamphlets. These papers and pamphlets are not like the cheap, 
sensational sheets of America, but are solid, strong journals. 
America has sent over hundreds of men to "educate" the Rus- 
sian workingmen, but the average Russian workman knows 
twice as much about the great social problems as these men 
who are sent to "educate" them. 

"How came so much of the mass of Russian people, viewed 
by all the truly learned as ignorant and stupid, to seize upon 
a social philosophy so new to the rest of the world and so far 
in advance of it? ... . The 'inferior' Russian .... lays hold 
upon this new conception, which is ... . not simple, not rudi- 
mentary, but advocated in many volumes by ponderous think- 
ers practically unknown to our superior world. Here, it seems 
to me, is a wonder both historic and suggestive." — "Unchained 
Russia." 

But why debate about the Russian's ability to organize a 
government? Why not face the fact that they did organize a 
great, new government — The Soviet. 

Did the Soviet Government ask for help from America? 

They asked for help and were willing to give American 
concessions in return. 

"On numerous occasions the American Red Cross was 
asked to actively co-operate in various departments of the So- 
viet Government, including a suggestion that the American Red 
Cross take charge of the entire food administration iji Petro- 
grad; that it take charge of shipments of food from Siberia, 
and that it handle the purchase of supplies for the Soviet 
Government, in China, and handle the shipment of these sup- 
plies through Siberia. The Soviet Government desires the as- 
sistance of the Allies in organizing a revolutionary volunteer 
army with which to oppose German domination. Nothing 
whatever can be done by the Allies except in co-operation with 
this (Soviet) government." — Report of Major Thomas D. 
Thacher of the American Red Cross Mission in Russia. 

Did the Soviets believe they were going to get help from 
America? 

They did. Because President Wilson said "We are fight- 
ing for the liberty and self-government and the undictated de- 
velopment of all people." And he sent a mesage to the Russian 

28 



people through the great All-Russian Soviet, promising help to 
Russia. 

Did the leaders of the Soviet believe in the assurances of 
help that President Wilson promised!? 

Many were skeptical about it, but most of the masses of 
Russia believed that the heart of the great American people 
sympathized with them. 

When the Soviet in Vladivostok was overturned by the 
Czecho-Slovaks, the gruzshchiki (longshoremen) rushed to the 
defense of the Red Staff building. There were only 200 of 
them and they were surrounded by 2 0,000 Englishmen, Japan- 
ese and Czecho-Slovaks, but they refused to surrender until 
the building was fired by an incendiary bomb. The working- 
men of Vladivostok gathered up the corpses of their dead and 
made rough coffins' for them, painting them red. On July 4, 
17,000 of these workers streamed through the streets in a 
funeral procession. Their Soviets had been destroyed, their 
comrades had been killed, the Government that they had held 
had been wrested from their grasp. All around them were the 
guns and battleships of their enemies. Their hearts were heavy 
with grief and bitterness. 

A sailor, hailing them, suddenly cried out: Comrades! 
Comrades! We are not alone! We are not alone! I ask you 
to look away to the flags flying over there on the American 
battleship Brooklyn. And with the flags of all the other na- 
tions there is the red flag of our Russian Republic. No, com- 
rades, we are not alone today in our grief. The Americans un- 
derstand, and they are with us." 

It was a mistake, of course. Those flags had been hung 
out in celebration of the day of our independence. But these 
workers did not know that. To them it was like the sudden 
touch of a friend's hand upon a lonely traveler in a foreign 
land. With a cry they caught up the shout of the sailor: "The 
Americans are with us!" And the vast gathering, lifting up 
their coffins, wreaths and banners, were again in motion. Tired 
as they were from the long standing in the sun, they made a 
wide detour to reach the street that runs up the steep hill to 
the American Consulate. Straight up the sharp slope they 
toiled in a cloud of dust, still singing as they marched, until 
they came before the Stars and Stripes floating from the flag- 
staff. There they stopped and laid the coffins of their dead 
beneath the flag of the great Western democracy. 

They stretched out their hands, crying, "Speak to us a 
word." They sent delegates within to implore that word. On 
the day the great republic of the West celebrated its indepen- 
dence the poor and disinherited of Rusisia came asking sympa- 
thy and understanding in the struggle for their independence. 
In the hour of their affliction these simple trusting folk, makers 
of the new democracy of the East, came stretching forth their 
hands to the great, strong democracy of the West. 

29 



They knew that President Wilson had given his assurance 
of help and loyalty to the "people of Russia." They reasoned: 
"We, the workers, and the peasants, the vast majority here in 
Vladivostok, are we not the people? Today in our trouble we 
come to claim the promised help." They came, bringing their 
dead, with the faith that out of America would come compas- 
sion and understanding. America, their only friend and 
refuge. 

But America did not understand. The American people 
did not even hear about it. But these Russian folk did not 
know that the American people never heard about it. All they 
know is that a few weeks after that appeal came the landing 
of the American troops. 

And now they say to one another: "How stupid we were 
to stand there in the heat and the dust, stretching out their 
hands like beggars!" 

What is supposed to be the purpose of intervention? 

To bring order into the country and a firm, stable govern- 
ment. 

What has intervention accomplished in Russia? 

(1) It has overturned the Government of the Soviets in 
Siberia, which rested on the peasants and workers, and in its 
stead gave support to the Omsk Government, which is a gov- 
ernment of the Cossack Generalsl, monarchists and landlords 
and a few old social revolutionists. (2) It has brought an- 
archy, assassination and hunger to the great masses of work- 
men and peasants. The Soviet at Vladivostok was established 
without killing a single human being; but to overthrow the 
Soviet for 150 miles thousands of peasants and workers were 
killed and wounded; all the battleships, hospitals and ware- 
houses around Vladivostok were filled with these victims of 
intervention. (3) It has cut off the great cities of Moscow and 
Petrograd from the grain supplies of Siberia. (4) It is turn- 
ing the natural love of the Russians for America into hatred 
for her. 



"THE RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY IS RED" 

By Col. William B. Thompson 
(Col. Thompson was agent of the Red Cross in Russia 
following the Revolution. On leaving Russia he donated 
$1,000,000 to spread the Propaganda of the Soviet Republic 
in Austria and Germany. The following excerpts are taken 
from a speech of Col. Thompson before the Rocky Mountain 
Club of New York, as reported in the New York Tribune of 
February 3rd, 1918.) 

I COME from a people now generally known as the Bolshe- 
viki, who just now are extremely unpopular in the 
American press. They are held up as assistant Germans 
and are being denounced for having deserted the Allies and 

30 



throwing their influence on the side of the Kaiser. The Bol- 
sheviki at the present moment are a tremendous factor in 
making the Central Powers of Europe realize that they can 
never win this war; that they will be forced to the basis of a 
reasonable and a lasting peace. 

The newspapers that are denouncing the Bolsheviki are 
printing columns about a revolution in Austria-Hungary, a 
revolution based upon immediate peace with no annexations 
and no indemnities. This Austro-Hungarian revolution was 
inspired by the Russian Bolsheviki. The example and efforts 
of the Russian democracy are setting the Central Powers on 
fire. The most damaging enemy Germany has is the Russian 
democracy alongside of it, preaching to the German common 
people and to the German Soldiers the same doctrine of de- 
mocratic peace. 

When I arrived in Russia last July I found the country 
almost prostrate through demoralization caused by unopposed 
German propaganda. German propaganda had brought about 
a strike through all Russia three days before the declaration 
of war in 1914. German intrigue and propaganda had so sur- 
rounded the Czar that a separate peace was almost impending 
last March. 

Food had been cut off deliberately from Petrograd and 
other cities in order to cause bread riots and strikes, with 
the cold intention on the part of the German and Russian 
autocracies of using these measures as an excuse for a separate 
peace. The Russian soldiers refused to fire on the hungry 
people, and the long-sought Russian Revolution was realized 
with the abdication of the Czar. At the time I reached 
Petrograd, Kerensky was attempting a coalition government — 
a government representing the rich and poor. The rich, how- 
ever, were not satisfied to work with the poor. 

German propaganda was busy tearing down. Allied 
haggling was unconsciously aiding, and this resulted in an 
attempt to place over Russia a man on horseback — Korniloff. 
To me it seems that a madder scheme was never conceived 
in the brain of man. It roused to frenzy the great mass of 
Russians, who interpreted it as a return to the old order. 
Just at this time a Russian general, Gurko, who had been 
deprived of the command of the army for writing letters to 
the Czar, saying that he hoped to see him return to power, 
escaped to England and was received in audience by King 
George. 

When you, who have not been in Russia, are puzzling 
your brains over the Bolsheviki, and wondering why they 
should be so extreme and so opposed to the property-owning 
classes, it would be useful for you to remember these things, 
which will explain why the workingmen and peasants are in 
absolute control in Russia, and passionately devoted to making 
their freedom secure. The terrorism under which the limited 
property-owning class is living in Russia is slight compared 

31 



with the terrorism in which the workingman and the peasant 
live in contemplating a return of the power of the old regime. 

We talk about patriots in this country, but we do not 
know what patriotism is until we see in Russia examples of 
what I call the patriotism of mankind. While in Russia I 
met some real patriots. There I met men and women who, 
for the benefit of their fellows, had spent three-quarters of 
their lives in prisons and chain-gangs. There I met the heads 
of the revolutionary groups who, for fifty years and more, 
had been risking their all for Russian freedom. 

Then again, I saw the workings of another group equally 
patriotic, who believed that ultimate freedom and possession 
of the land could only be worked out by the workingmen and 
the peasants. 

I will 'say right here that if at any time during my travels 
I was a witness of deeds of wanton destruction and violence, 
it was not in Russia. If at any time, I was subjected to any 
discourtesy or incivility, it was not in Russia. If at any time 
I was in danger, it was not in Russia. 

There has been considerable civil strife in one section of 
the country or another, but the reports always appear much 
more dreadful than the facts really are. Russia is happy in 
her trials, because Russia has found something which her sons 
and their fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers 
have been striving for. Russia has found freedom. Russia 
is a democracy. It is a democracy which comes as near being 
representative of the soil as it would be possible to find any- 
where. It has mud on its boots, hair on its face, and the love 
of freedom in its heart. 

Russia is a government of the workingmen and the sol- 
diers, of the peasants and the mechanics. It is a democracy 
which is striving for the uplift of the great masses. The one 
great desire or perhaps 94 per cent of Russia's 180,000,000 
people is to have peace; to have land which they can control 
and call their own; to have a part in the industrial life of the 
country, and feel that they own a part of it; to live lives of 
order, unrestrained by any czar or dictator, to acquire educa- 
tion, and to improve their condition. This is the impulse 
which has stirred the Russian people long before and ever 
since they overthrew the Czar. The Russian democracy wants 
peace, as we in America want peace, as they want peace in 
France and England and Italy. 

I have been deeply impressed with the effect of the new- 
found liberty upon the masses of the Russian people. It did 
not turn them into a vengeful horde, bent on wholesale mas- 
sacre and bloodshed, the newspaper reports in most part to 
the contrary notwithstanding. As a matter of fact, it did not 
change them very much, except that from a sad, brave, pro- 
testing people, they become a glad, amicable but rather be- 
wildered people. They attained liberty, and naturally it is 
taking some time for them to work out the system of govern- 

32 



merit under which they will live. They are a kindly people, 
and as a nation they have very high ideals. 

It was Russian democracy which gave to the world the 
cry that there should be no annexations and no indemnities. 
That is a cry which should have been appreciated earlier in 
America and should have resulted in the unswerving sympathy 
of America being extended to the Russian democracy. It 
was the democracy of Russia which injected into this war the 
cry, "No secret treaties!" It was the democracy of Russia 
which gave to the world the principle of self-determination 
by small nationalities, which President Wilson has crystallized 
in his message and which will form the basis for the freedom 
of the world. In the face of declarations like these from the 
Russian democracy there has been a torrent of abuse from 
some of the Russian upper classes and from the American 
press, which I am sorry to say apparently does not compre- 
hend some of the most important and fundamental elements 
of the Russian situation. 

I urge strongly that we do not relax our efforts to help 
the Russians. We should not grow impatient because of their 
attempts to put into practice what we might regard as wild 
theories. We should always remember our own shortcomings 
while our government was in the making. Some of the things 
which we have introduced into our government and which 
have worked out satisfactorily would have been regarded as 
wild populism thirty years ago. 

The Russians are groping for light. The revolution and 
the experiments in governments are the natural outbursts of 
untrained men organizing freedom on their own lines. 

They say "The Russian democracy is red!" Yes, full of 
good red blood — but you'll find it isn't yellow! 



IS IT TRUE? 

From The Nation. 
(The Nation of New York is the oldest political weekly 
journal in the United States. It is owned and edited by Oswald 
Garrison Villard, Some time ago Mr. Villard in the public 
interest addressed certain inquiries, printed below, to the 
Secretary of State and invited a reply. Receiving none, Mr. 
Villard prints them in The Nation of November 16th 1918, 
and again invites an answer. None has as yet been received 
from Secretary Lansing.) 

IS it true that the Administration knew, at the time of the 
Brest-Litovsk negotiations, that the Soviet Government 
represented by Lenin and Trotzky, was opposed to the 
projected treaty, and looked forward to signing it only because 
of the physical impossibility of resisting the German demands 
unless the Allies, or some of them, came to its aid? 

Is it true that Lenin and Trotzky, a week or more pre- 
vious to the signing of the treaty, handed Raymond Robins, 
at that time a representative in Russia of the American Red 

33 



Cross, a communication to President Wilson declaring their 
to sign it if the United States would assure them of its moral 
opposition to the treaty, and stating that they would refuse 
support in breaking off the negotiations and would send to 
Russia food and arms? 

Is it true that at least two copies of the communication 
were at once cabled to Washington, one of them to the De- 
partment of State, through diplomatic officials of the United 
States in Russia? 

Is it true that the communication was duly received by 
the Department of State and came under the eye of Secretary 
Lansing? 

Is it true that the communication was not laid before 
Mr. Wilson at the time, but that Mr. Wilson was ignorant of 
its existence until after his decision to intervene in Russia 
had been arrived at and announced. 

Is it true that Mr. Robins, who is alleged to have been 
instrumental in securing the communication from Lenin and 
Trotzky and having it cabled through diplomatic channels, 
spent several weeks in Washington upon his return vainly 
trying to secure an audience with Mr. Wilson; and that in the 
meantime he was given to understand by the American Red 
Cross and the Department of State that he was not to make 
any public statement upon the subject? 

Is it true that the former Russian Ambassador, Mr. 
Bakhmeteff, although no longer the legal diplomatic repre- 
sentative of any existing government in Russia, nevertheless 
continues to be recognized officially by the Department of 
State as the Russian Ambassador; that Russian citizens now 
in this country, having business with the Government, have 
been informed in writing by the Department of State that 
their communications must be transmitted through Mr. Bakh- 
meteff as Russian Ambassador; and that Russian citizens in 
this country who desired exemption from the draft have been 
required to have their applications approved by him? 

Is it true that the locomotives, cars, and other railway 
material purchased or contracted for on account of the Rus- 
sian Government by Prof. George V. Lomonossoff, and legally 
in his custody at the time when he was removed from office 
as head of the Russian railway mission by Mr. Bakhmeteff 
and his papers seized by agents of the Department of Justice, 
have in part been sold, with the knowledge of the Government, 
and the proceeds applied to the payment of interest on Russian 
bonds or for other alleged public purposes, and in part used 
in aid of Allied military operations in France or elsewhere? 

Is it true that a considerable sum of money, variously 
reported at from $25,000,000 upwards, originally advanced by 
the United States in aid of the Kerensky Government, was 
actually used by Kerensky, with the knowledge of the Depart- 
ment of State, in the suppression of a popular rising in 
Finland? 

34 



Is it true that the Russian Information Bureau at New 
York, organized under the direction and conducted with the 
approval of Mr. Bakhmeteff, is carried on, in whole or in 
part, by the aid of funds originally provided by the United 
States in the form of loans or credits to Russia for other pur- 
poses, and now held or administered, directly or indirectly, 
by Mr. Bakhmeteff as Russian Ambassador; or by the aid of 
funds from the sale of railway or other property originally 
belonging to the Russian Government and now held or ad- 
ministered, with the approval of the Government of the 
United States, by Mr. Bakhmeteff as Russian Ambassador? 

Is it true that the Russian Information Bureau was for 
months actively engaged in working up sentiment in all parts 
of the United States in favor of intervention in Russia, and 
that its operations in this direction were conducted with the 
knowledge or approval of the Department of State or of Mr. 
Wilson himself? 

Is it true that Mr. Bakhmeteff, acting as Russian Am- 
bassador, is at this time carrying on in the United States, 
through the Russian Information Bureau, or paid lectures, or 
other means, a systematic propaganda designed to discredit 
the Soviet Government and to encourage public sentiment in 
favor of the continuance of intervention in Russia, and that 
what is being done in this direction is known to the Depart- 
ment of State or to Mr. Wilson? 



A LETTER TO THE EXPLOITED MASSES OF 

AMERICA 
By Nikolai Lenin 

Moscow, August 20, 1918. 

COMRADES : A Russian Bolshevik who participated 
in the revolution of 1905 and for many years after- 
ward lived in your country has offered to transmit this 
letter to you. I have grasped this opportunity joyfully, 
for the revolutionary proletariat of America — in so far 
as it is the enemy of American imperialism — is destined 
to perform an important task at this time. * * # 

Had the Anglo-French and American bourgeoisie 
accepted the Soviet invitation to participate in peace ne- 
gotiations at Brest-Litovsk, instead of leaving Russia to 
the mercy of brutal Germany, a just peace without an- 
nexations and indemnities, a peace based upon complete 
equality could have been forced upon Germany, and 
millions of lives might have been saved. Because they 
hoped to re-establish the Eastern front by once more 

35 



drawing us^ into the whirlpool of warfare, they refused 
to attend peace negotiations and gave Germany a free 
hand to cram its shameful terms down the throat of the 
Russian people. It lay in the power of the Allied couij- 
tries to make the Brest-Litovsk negotiations the forerun- 
ner of a general peace. It ill becomes them to throw 
the blame for the Russo-German peace upon our shoul- 
ders! * # # 

The workers of the whole world, in whatever coun- 
try they may live, rejoice with us and sympathize with 
us, applaud us for having burst the iron ring of imperial- 
istic agreements and treaties, for having dreaded no 
sacrifice, however great, to free ourselves, for having 
established ourselves as a Socialist republic, even so rent 
asunder and plundered by German imperialists, for hav- 
ing raised the banner of peace, the banner of Socialism, 
over the world ! What wonder that we are hated by the 
capitalist class the world over! But this hatred of impe- 
rialism and the sympathy of the class-conscious w r orkers 
of all countries give us assurance of the righteousness of 
our cause. 

He is no Socialist who cannot understand that one 
cannot and must not hesitate to bring even that greatest 
of sacrifices, the sacrifice of territory, that one must be 
ready to accept even military defeat at the hands of im- 
perialism, in the interests of victory over the bourgeoisie, 
in the interests of a transfer of power to the working 
class. For the sake of " their" cause, that is, for the con- 
quest of world-power, the imperialists of England and 
Germany have not hesitated to ruin a whole row of na- 
tions, from Belgium to Servia, from Palestine to Mesopota- 
mia. Shall we then hesitate to act in the name of the 
liberation of the workers of the world from the yoke of 
capitalism, in the name of a general honorable peace; 
shall we wait until we can find a way that entails no 
sacrifice; shall we be afraid to begin the fight until an 
easy victory is assured; shall we place the integrity and 
safety of this "fatherland" created by the bourgeoisie 
over the interests of the International Socialist Revolu- 
tion? # * * 

36 



The great Russian revolutionist, Tchernychewski, 
once said : Political activity is not as smooth as the pave- 
ment of the Newski Prospect. He is no revolutionist who 
would have the revolution of the proletariat only under 
the "condition" that it proceed smoothly and in an or- 
derly manner, that the proletarians of all countries im- 
mediately go into action, that guarantees against defeat 
be given beforehand, that the revolution go forward 
along the broad, free, straight path to victory, that there 
shall not be here and there the heaviest sacrifices, that 
we shall not have to lie in wait in besieged fortresses, 
shall not have to climb up along the narrowest paths, the 
most impassable, winding, dangerous mountain roads. 
He is no revolutionist, he has not yet freed himself from 
the pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall 
back, again and again, into the camp of the counter-revo- 
lutionary bourgeoisie. 

They are little more than imitators of the bour- 
geoisie, these gentlemen who delight in holding up to us 
the " chaos" of the revolution, the " destruction " of in- 
dustry, the unemployment, the lack of food. Can there 
be anything more hypocritical than such accusations from 
people who greeted and supported the imperialistic war 
and made common cause with Kerensky when he con- 
tinued the war? Is not this imperialistic war the cause of 
all our misfortune ? The revolution that was born by the 
war must necessarily go on through the terrible difficul- 
ties and sufferings that war created, through this heri- 
tage of destruction and reactionary mass murder. To 
accuse us of " destruction " of industries and "terror" is 
hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry, and shows an incapabil- 
ity of understanding the most elemental fundamentals 
of the raging, climatic force of the class struggle called 
revolution. 

In words our accusers "recognize" this kind of class 
struggle, in deeds they revert again and again to the 
middle-class Utopia of "class-harmony" and the mutual 
"interdependence" of classes upon one another. In 
reality the class struggle in revolutionary times has 
always inevitably taken on the form of civil war, and 

37 



civil war is unthinkable without the worst kind of de- 
struction, without terror and limitations of the form of 
democracy in the interests of the war. One must be a 
sickly sentimentalist not to be able to see, to understand 
and appreciate this necessity. Only the Tchechow type 
of the lifeless "Man in the Box" can denounce the revo- 
lution for this reason instead of throwing himself into 
the fight with the whole vehemence and decision of his 
soul at a moment when history demands that the highest 
problems of humanity be solved by struggle and war. 

The best representatives of the American proletariat 
— those representatives who have repeatedly given ex- 
pression of their full solidarity with us, the Bolsheviki — 
are the expression of this revolutionary tradition in the 
life of the American people. This tradition originated 
in the war of liberation against the English in the eight- 
eenth and the civil war in the nineteenth century. In- 
dustry and commerce in 1870 were in a much worse 
position than in 1860. But where can you find an Ameri- 
can so pedantic, so absolutely idiotic as to deny the revo- 
lutionary and progressive significance of the American 
civil war of 1860-1865 ? 

The representatives of the bourgeoisie understand 
very w T ell that the overthrow of slavery was well worth 
the three years of civil war, the depth of destruction, 
devastation and terror that were its accompaniment. 
But these same gentlemen and the reform Socialists who 
have allowed themselves to be cowed by the bourgeoisie 
and tremble at the thought of a revolution, cannot, nay, 
will not, see the necessity and righteousness of a civil 
war in Russia, though it is facing a far greater task, the 
work of abolishing capitalist wage-slavery and over- 
throwing the rule of the bourgeoisie. 

The American working class will, not follow the lead 
of its bourgeoisie. It will go with us against the bour- 
geoisie. The whole history of the American people gives 
me this confidence, this conviction. I recall with pride 
the words of one* of the best loved leaders of the Ameri- 
can proletariat, Eugene V. Debs, who, in the Appeal to 
Reason at the end of 1915, when it was still a Socialist 



paper, in an article entitled "Why Should I Fight V* 
sa i(j * * * * I am not surprised that this fearless 
man was thrown into prison by the American bourgeoisie. 
Let them assault the true internationalists, the real rep- 
resentatives of the revolutionary proletariat. The greater 
the bitterness and brutality they sow, the nearer is the 
day of the victorious proletarian revolution. 

We are accused of having brought devastation upon 
Russia. Who is it that makes the accusations? The 
crain-bearers of the bourgeoisie, or that same bourgeoisie 
that almost completely destroyed the culture of Europe, 
that has dragged the whole continent back to barbarism, 
that has brought hunger and destruction to the world. 
This bourgeoisie now demands that we find a different 
basis for our revolution than that of destruction, that we 
shall not build it upon the ruins of war, with human 
beings degraded and brutalized by years of warfare. 0, 
how human, how just is this bourgeoisie ! 

Its servants charge us with the use of terroristic 
methods. * # # Have the English forgotten their 
1649, the French their 1793 ? Terror was just and justi- 
fied when it was employed by the bourgeoisie for its own 
purposes against feudal domination. But terror becomes 
criminal when workingmen a.nd poverty stricken peas- 
ants dare to use it against the bourgeoisie. Terror was 
just and justified when it was used to put one exploiting 
minority in the place of another. But terror becomes hor- 
rible and criminal when it is used to abolish all ex- 
ploiting minorities, when it is employed in the cause of 
the actual majority, in the cause of the proletariat and 
the semi-proletariat, of the working class and the poor 
peasantry. 

The bourgeoisie of international imperialism has suc- 
ceeded in slaughtering ten millions, in crippling twenty 
millions in its war. Should our war, the war of the op- 
pressed and exploited, against opi)*essors and exploiters 
cost a half or a; whole million victims in all countries, 
the bourgeoisie would still maintain that the victims of 
the world war died a righteous death, that those of the 
civil war were sacrificed for a criminal cause. 

39 



But the proletariat even now, in the midst of the hor- 
rors of war, is learning the great truth that all revolu- 
tions teach, the truth that has been handed down to us 
by our best teachers, the founders of modern Socialism. 
From them we have learned that a successful revolution 
is inconceivable unless it breaks the resistance of the 
exploiting class. When the workers and the laboring 
peasants took hold of the powers of state, it became our 
duty to quell the resistance of the exploiting class. We 
are proud that we have done it, that we are doing it. 
We only regret that we did not do it at the beginning, 
with sufficient firmness and decision. 

We realize that the mad resistance of the bourgeoisie 
against the Socialist revolution in all countries is una- 
voidable. We know, too, that with the development of 
this revolution, this resistance will grow. But the pro- 
letariat will break down this resistance and in the course 
of its struggle against the bourgeoisie the proletariat will 
finally become ripe for victory and power. 

Let the corrupt bourgeois press trumpet every mis- 
take that is made by our revolution out into the world. 
We are not afraid of our mistakes. The beginning of 
the revolution has not sanctified humanity. It is not to 
be expected that the working class which has been ex- 
ploited and forcibly held down by the clutches of want, 
of ignorance and degradation for centuries should con- 
duct its revolution without mistakes. The dead body of 
bourgeois society cannot simply be put into a coffin and 
buried. It rots in our midst, poisons the air we breathe, 
pollutes our lives, clings to the new, the fresh, the living 
with a thousand threads and tendrils of old customs, of 
death and decay. 

But for every hundred of our mistakes that are 
heralded into the world by the bourgeoisie and its syco- 
phants, there are terf thousand great deeds of heroism, 
greater and more heroic because they seem so simple and 
unpretentious, because they take place in the every-day 
life of the factory districts or in secluded villages, be- 
cause they are the deeds of people who are not in the habit 

40 



of proclaiming their every success to the world, who have 
no opportunity to do so. 

But even if the contrary were true — I know, of 
course, that this is not so — but even if we had committed 
10,000 mistakes to every 100 wise and righteous deeds, 
yes, even then our revolution would be great and invin- 
cible. And it will go down in the history of the world 
as triumphant. For the first time in the history of the 
world not the minority, not alone the rich and the edu- 
cated, but the real masses, the huge majority of the work- 
ing class itself, are building up a new world, are deciding 
the most difficult questions of social organization out of 
their own experience. 

Every mistake that is made in this work, in this hon- 
estly conscientious co-operation of ten million plain work- 
ingmen and peasants in the re-creation of their entire 
lives — every such mistake is worth ten thousands and 
millions of "faultless" successes of the exploiting mi- 
nority in outwitting and taking advantage of the labor- 
ing masses. For only through these mistakes can the 
workers and peasants learn to organize their new exist- 
ence, to get along without the capitalist class. Only thus 
will they be able to blaze their way through thousands 
of hindrances to victorious Socialism. 

Mistakes are being made by our peasants who, at 
one stroke, in the night from October 25 to October 26 
(Russian calendar), 1917, did away with all private 
ownership of land, and are now struggling, from month 
to month, under the greatest difficulties, to correct their 
own mistakes, trying to solve in practice the most diffi- 
cult problems of organizing a new social state, fighting 
against profiteers to secure the possession of the land for 
the worker instead of for the speculator, to carry on 
agricultural production under a system of communist 
farming on a large scale. 

Mistakes are being made by our workmen in their 
revolutionary activity, who, in a few short months, have 
placed practically all of the larger factories and works 
under state ownership, and are now learning, from day 
to day, under the greatest difficulties, to conduct the 

41 



management of entire industries, to reorganize indus- 
tries already organized, to overcome the deadly resist- 
ance of laziness and middle-class reaction and egotism. 
Stone upon stone they are building the foundation for a 
new social community, the self-discipline of labor, the 
new rule of the labor organizations of the working class 
over their members. 

Mistakes are being made in their revolutionary ac- 
tivity by the Soviets which were first created in 1905 by 
the gigantic upheaval of the masses. The Workmen's 
and Peasants' Soviets are a new type of state, a new 
highest form of democracy, a particular form of the dic- 
tatorship of the proletariat, a mode of conducting the 
business of the state without the bourgeoisie and against 
the bourgeoisie. For the first time democracy is placed 
at the service of the masses, of the workers, and ceases 
to be democracy for the rich, as it is, in the last analysis, 
in all capitalist, yes, in all democratic republics. For 
the first time the masses of the people, in a nation of 
nearly two hundred millions, are fulfilling the task of 
realizing the dictatorship of the proletariat and the 
semi-proletariat, without which Socialism is not to be 
thought of. 

Let incurable pedants, crammed full of bourgeois 
democratic and parliamentary prejudices, shake their 
heads gravely over our Soviets, let them deplore the fact 
that we have no direct elections. These people have for- 
gotten nothing, have learned nothing in the great up- 
heaval of 1914-18. The combination of the dictatorship 
of the proletariat with the new democracy of the prole- 
tariat, of civil war with the widest application of the 
masses to political problems, such a combination cannot 
be achieved in a day, cannot be forced into the battered 
modes of formal parliamentary democratism. In the 
Soviet Republic there arises before us a new world, the 
world of Socialism. Such a world cannot be materialized 
as if my magic, complete in every detail, as Minerva 
sprang from Jupiter's head. 

While the old bourgeois democratic constitutions, 
for instance, proclaimed formal equality and the right 

42 



of free assemblage, the constitution of the Soviet Re- 
public repudiates the hypocrisy of a formal equality of 
all human beings. When the bourgeois republicans 
overturned feudal thrones, they did not recognize the 
rules of formal equality of monarchists. Since we are 
concerned with the task of overthrowing the bourgeoisie, 
only fools or traitors will insist on the formal equality 
of the bourgeoisie. The right of free assemblage is not 
worth an iota to the workman and to the peasant when 
all better meeting places are in the hands of the bour- 
geoisie. Our Soviets have taken over all usable buildings 
in the cities and towns out of the hands of the rich and 
have placed them at the disposal of the workmen and 
peasants for meeting and organization purposes. That is 
how our right of assemblage looks — for the workers. 
That is the meaning and intent of our Soviet, of our 
Socialist constitution. 

And for this reason we are all firmly convinced that 
the Soviet Eepublic, whatever misfortune may still lie in 
store for it, is unconquerable. 

It is unconquerable because every blow that comes 
from the powers of madly raging imperialism, every new 
attack by the international bourgeoisie will bring new and 
hitherto unaffected strata of workingmen and peasants 
into the fight, will educate them at the cost of the great- 
est sacrifice, making them hard as steel, awakening a new 
heroism in the masses. 

We know that it may take a long time before help 
can come from you, comrades, American Workingnien, 
for the development of the revolution in the different 
countries proceeds along various paths, with varying 
rapidity (how should it be otherwise!) We know full 
well that the outbreak of the European proletarian revo- 
lution may take many weeks to come, quickly as it is 
ripening in these days. We are counting on the inevita- 
bility of the international revolution. But that does 
not mean that we count upon its coming at some definite 
nearby date. We have experienced two great revolutions 
in our own country, that of 1905 and that of 1917, and 
we know that revolutions can come neither at a word of 

43 



command nor according to prearranged plans. We know 
that circumstances alone have pushed us, the proletariat 
of Russia, forward, that we have reached this new stage 
in the social life of the world not because of our supe- 
riority, but because of the peculiarly reactionary charac- 
ter of Russia. But until the outbreak of the international 
revolution, revolutions in individual countries may still 
meet with a number of serious setbacks and overthrows. 

And yet we are certain that we are invincible, for hu- 
manity will not emerge from this imperialistic massacre 
broken in spirit — it will triumph. Ours was the first 
country to break the chains of imperialistic warfare. We 
broke them with the greatest sacrifice, but they are 
broken. We stand outside of imperialistic duties and con- 
siderations, w r e have raised the banner of the fight for the 
complete overthrow of imperialism for the world. 

We are in a beleaguered fortress, so long as no 
other international Socialist revolution comes to our as- 
sistance with its armies. But these armies exist, they are 
stronger than ours, they grow, they strive, they become 
more invincible the longer imperialism with its brutali- 
ties continues. Workingmen the world over are break- 
ing with their betrayers, with their Gompers and their 
Scheidemanns. Inevitably labor is approaching com- 
munistic Bolshevistic tactics, is preparing for the pro- 
letarian revolution that alone is capable of preserving 
culture and humanity from destruction. We are invin- 
cible. The proletarian Revolution is invincible. 

Note: The quotation from Debs in Ileum's original article is considered 
unprintable under the Espionage Act. 



A NOTE FROM THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT TO 
PRESIDENT WILSON 

ON December 24, 1918, while President Wilson was in 
London, the following note was transmitted to him 
by wireless from Stockholm: 
Mr. Woodrow Wilson, 

President of the United States, 

American Embassy, London. 
Mr. President: In addition to general peace offer 
recently addressed by the Soviet Government to the 

44 



Allies I formally informed today the Stockholm Minis- 
ters of the United States and of the Allied Countries 
that I am authorized to enter into negotiations for a 
peaceful settlement of all questions making for hostilities 
against Russia. 

The principles proclaimed by you as possible basis 
for settling European questions, and your avowed efforts 
and intentions, of making settlement conform to demands 
of justice and humanity, induce and justify me to send you 
this statement, inasmuch as most points of your peace pro- 
gramme are included into the more extensive aspirations 
of the Russian workers and peasants now rulers of their 
country. It was they who first proclaimed and actually 
granted to nations right of self-determination, who suf- 
fered most sacrifices in fighting imperialism and militar- 
ism both at home and abroad, who dealt the severest blow 
to secret diplomacy and inaugurated open diplomacy. 
And it was partly for these innovations in politics that 
they have been fiercely attacked by the former ruling 
classes of Russia and their counterparts in other coun- 
tries. 

To justify this attack a network of lies and calum- 
nies has been woven round the activities of the Soviets 
and forged documents put into circulation. Unfortun- 
ately Allied statesmen accept all monstrous accusations 
against Soviets at face value without taking trouble to 
check them. While agents of anti-Soviet parties are al- 
lowed and encouraged to move freely in allied countries 
and disseminate untruth, representatives of the accused 
side have never been allowed to put fully their case and 
to answer charges made against them. 

In fact the chief aim of the Soviets is to secure for 
the toiling majority of Russian people economic liberty 
without which political liberty is of no avail to them. 
For eight months the Soviets endeavored to realize their 
aims by peaceful methods without resorting to violence, 
adhering to the abolition of capital punishment which 
abolition had been part of their programme. It was only 
when their adversaries, the minority of the Russian peo- 

45 



pie, took to terroristic acts against popular members of 
the Government and invoked the help of foreign troops, 
that the laboring masses were driven to acts of exasper- 
ation and gave vent to their wrath and bitter feelings 
against their former oppressors. For Allied invasion of 
Russian territory not only compelled the Soviets against 
their own will to militarize the country anew and to 
divert their energies and resources so necessary, tb the 
economic reconstruction of Russia, exhausted by four 
years of war, to the defense of the country, but also cut 
off the vital sources of foodstuffs and raw material, ex- 
posing the population to most terrible privation border- 
ing on starvation. 

I wish to emphasize that the so-called red terror, 
which is grossly exaggerated and misrepresented abroad, 
was not the cause but the direct outcome and result of 
Allied intervention. The Russian workers and peasants 
fail to understand how foreign countries, which never 
dreamt of interfering with Russian affairs when Czarist 
barbarism and militarism ruled supreme, and which even 
supported that regime, feel justified in intervening in 
Russia now when the working people itself after decades 
of strenuous struggling and countless sacrifices suc- 
ceeded in taking power and destiny of their country into 
their own hands, aiming at nothing but their own happi- 
ness and international brotherhood, constituting no men- 
ace to other nations. 

The Russian workers and peasants are determined 
to defend their dearly won power and liberties against 
invaders with all the means their vast country of- 
fers. But mindful of the inevitable wanton loss 
of life and treasure on both sides and wishing to 
avert the further ruining of Russia which must result 
from the continuation of internal and external fighting, 
they are prepared to go to any length of concessions as 
far as real interests of other countries are concerned, if 
they can secure thereby conditions enabling them to 
work out peacefully their social schemes. 

I understand that the question of relations with Rus- 
sia is now engaging the attention of Allied statesmen. I 

46 



venture then to submit to you, Mr. President, that there 
are now only two courses open to them. One is con- 
tinued open or disguised intervention on the present or 
on a still larger scale, which means prolongation of war, 
further embitterment of the Russian masses, intensifica- 
tion of internal strife, unexampled bloodshed and per- 
haps total extermination of the Russian bourgeoisie by 
the exasperated masses, final devastation of the country 
and in case of the interventionists after a long struggle 
obtaining their end, a white terror eclipsing the atroci- 
ties of the Finnish white guardists, inevitable introduc- 
tion of military dictatorship and restoration of mon- 
archy, leading to interminable revolutions and upheavals 
and paralyzing the economic development of the country 
for long decades. 

The other alternative, which I trust may commend 
itself to you, is impartially to weigh and investigate into 
the one-sided accusations against Soviet Russia, to come 
to an understanding with the Soviet Government, to 
withdraw the foreign troops from Russian territory and 
to raise the economic blockade, soothing thereby the ex- 
cited passions of the masses, to help Russia to regain her 
own sources of supply and to give her technical advice 
how to exploit her natural richness in most effective way 
for the benefit of all countries badly in need of food- 
stuffs and raw materials. 

The dictatorship of toilers and producers is not an 
aim in itself, but the means of building up a new social 
system under which useful work and equal rights would 
be provided for all citizens irrespective of classes to 
which they had formerly belonged. One may believe in 
this ideal or not, but it surely gives no justification for 
sending foreign troops to fight against it or for arming 
and supporting classes interested in the restoration of* the 
old system of exploitation of man by man. 

I venture to appeal to your sense of justice and im- 
partiality. I hope and trust above all that before decid- 
ing on any course of action you will give justice to the 

47 



demand of "audiatur et altera pars." (Let the other side 
also be heard.) 

MAXIM LITVINOFF, 
Late Representative for Great Britain of the 
Russian Federated Republic. 
Stockholm, December 24 : 1918. 

(The above document has never been made public in 
America. Many other messages and notes sent by the 
Soviet Government to other countries, the publication of 
which would have clarified the Russian situation in the 
minds of the people, have also been denied publicity. — 
Bureau of Information on Soviet Russia.) 



FROM THE RUSSIAN COMMISSARY OP FOREIGN 

AFFAIRS 

(On September 5th, 1918, E. Odier, the Swiss Ambas- 
sador, as President of the Diplomatic Corps in Russia, 
addressed a note to the People's Commissary for Foreign 
Affairs at Moscow, protesting against a class of citizens in 
Russia without government authority committing acts of 
violence against the bourgeoisie and expressing the indig- 
nation of the Diplomatic Corps at such alleged unwar- 
ranted and arbitrary conduct aga'nst the former ruling 
classes. Following is the answer of the Soviet Govern- 
ment) : 
To the Gentlemen Representing the Capitalist Neutral 

Nations : 

THE note presented to us on the 5th of September by 
the gentlemen representing the neutral powers rep- 
resents an act of gross interference into the inner affairs 
of Russia. The Soviet Government would be justified in 
ignoring this act. But the Soviet Government is glad to 
grasp any opportunity of explaining the nature of its 
political tactics to the masses in all countries, for it is 
th e' spokesman not only of the Russian working class, but 
of exploited humanity all over the earth. The People's 
Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, therefore, gives an- 
swer, hereby, to the matter in question. 

In their description of the treatment that is being 
accorded to the suppressed Russian bourgeoisie, the neu- 

48 



tral powers are plainly trying to arouse the sympathy of 
the bourgeoisie all over the world. We do not propose 
to disprove the fiction of the gentlemen who represent 
the neutral nations. In their note they repeat all the 
slander that has been invented by the Russian bour- 
geoisie to discredit the Red Army. We will not refute 
individual occurrences, first of all because the gentlemen 
who represent the neutral powers have presented abso- 
lutely no concrete occurrences; secondly, because every 
war — and we are in the midst of a civil war — brings with 
it excesses on the part of individuals. 

The gentlemen representing the neutral powers did 
not protest against the individual misdeeds of irrespon- 
sible persons, but against the regime that is being carried 
out by the Government of the Workmen and Peasants 
against the exploiting class. 

Before entering into the reasons why the Govern- 
ment of the Workers and Peasants uses the Red Terror 
that has called forth the protest of the gentlemen repre- 
senting the neutral powers, permit us to ask a few ques- 
tions. 

Do the representatives of the neutral nations know 
that an international war has been raging for almost five 
years, into which a small clique of bankers, generals and 
bureaucrats precipitated the masses of the civilized na- 
tions of the world? That in this war these masses are 
destroying each other, cutting each other's throats that 
capitalism may earn new millions thereby? Do they 
know that in this war not only millions of men were 
killed at the front, but that both belligerent parties have 
attacked open cities with bombs, killing unarmed women 
and children? Do they know that in this war one of the 
belligerent parties doomed millions of human beings to 
death by starvation by cutting off their food supply in 
direct contradiction to the tenets of international law, 
that the belligerent party hopes to force the other by 
starving its children to surrender to the victor? Do they 
know that the belligerent powers have imprisoned hun- 
dreds of thousands of unarmed, peaceable citizens in the 
enemy's country, sending them to places far from home 

49 



into involuntary servitude, depriving them of every right 
of self-defense? Do they know that in all belligerent 
nations the ruling capitalist clique has deprived the 
masses of the right of free press and assemblage and the 
right to strike? That workingmen are being imprisoned 
for every attempt to protest against the White Terror of 
the bourgeoisie, that they are sent to the front that every 
last thought of human rights may be killed with them? 

AH these instances of the destructive force that is 
being directed against the working class in the name of 
capitalist interests, all these pictures of the White Terror 
of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat are more than 
familiar to the neutral nations and their representatives 
in Russia. Nevertheless, either they forgot their high 
ideas of humanity or they forgot in these cases to remind 
the blood-dripping belligerent nations of their misdeeds. 

The so-called neutral nations did not dare to utter a 
word of protest against the White Terror of the capital- 
ist class, nay, more, they did not wish to protest, for the 
bourgeoisie in all neutral nations have helped the 
capitalist powers of the capitalist nations to carry on 
the war because they are earning billions in war con- 
tracts with the belligerent nations. 

We beg leave to ask another question. Have the gen- 
tlemen representing the neutral powers heard of the 
crushing of the Sinn Feiners in Dublin, of the shooting 
to death, without due process of law, of hundreds of 
Irishmen, with Skeffington at their head? Have they 
heard of the White Terror in Finland, of the tens of 
thousands of dead, of the tens of thousands of men and 
women who are languishing in jail, against whom no 
charges have ever been or will ever be made ? Have they 
never heard of the mass murder of workmen and peas- 
ants in Ukraine ? Of the mass murder of workmen by the 
brave Czecho-Slovaks, these hirelings of French capital? 
The governments of the neutral nations have heard all 
these things, but never before did it occur to them to pro- 
test against the despotism of the bourgeoisie when it op- 
presses the working-class movement. For they them- 
selves are ready, at any moment, to shoot down working- 

50 



men who fight for their rights. In their own countries 
they stand ready, in the name of the bourgeoisie, and 
defense of its interests, to crush out every vestige of 
working-class uprising. 

It is sufficient to recall that labor demonstrations 
were recently routed by military force in Denmark, Nor- 
way, Holland, Switzerland, etc., The workers of Switzer- 
land, Holland and Denmark have not yet revolted, but 
already the governments of these countries are mobiliz- 
ing their military forces against the weakest protest of 
the working class. When the representatives of the neu- 
tral nations threaten us with the indignation of the entire 
civilized world, and protest against the Eed Terror in the 
name of humanity, we respectfully call their attention 
to the fact that they were not sent to Russia to defend 
the principles of humanity, but to preserve the interests 
of the capitalistic State ; we would advise them further 
not to threaten us with indignant horror of the civilized 
world, but to tremble before the fury of the masses who 
are arising against a civilization that has thrust humanity 
into the unspeakable misery of endless slaughter. 

In the entire capitalist world the White Terror rules 
over the working class. In Russia the working class de- 
stroyed that Czarism whose bloody regime brought no 
protest from the neutral nations. The working class of 
Russia put an end to the rule of the bourgeoisie who, 
under the flag of the revolution, again amidst the deep 
silence of the neutral powers, slaughtered soldiers who 
refused to shed their blood in the interests of war specu- 
lators, killed peasants because they claimed the land 
they had cultivated for centuries in the sweat of their 
brow. ♦ 

The majority of the Russian people, in the person of 
the second Congress for the Workmen's, Peasants', Cos- 
sacks' and Soldiers' Council, placed the power into the 
hand of the Workmen's and Peasants' Government. A 
small handful of capitalists who desired to regain the 
factories and the banks that were taken from them in the 
interests of the people, a small handful of land owners 
who wished to take back the land that had been given to 

51 



the peasants, a small handful of generals who wished 
again to teach, the workmen and tlie sodiers obedience 
with the whiplash, refused to recognize the decision of 
the Russian people. With the money of foreign capital 
they mobilized counter-revolutionary hordes, with whose 
assistance they tried to cut off Russia, from its too free 
supply in order to choke the Russian revolution with the 
bony hand of hunger. After they became convinced of 
the futility of their attempts to overthrow the working- 
class republic that enjoyed the unbounded confidence and 
support of the working class, they arranged counter-rev- 
olutionary uprisings in the attempt to crowd the Work- 
men's and Peasants' Government from its positive work, 
to hinder it in its task of ridding the country of anarchy 
that bad taken hold of the country in consequence of the 
criminal policies of former governments. They betrayed 
Russia on the South, North and East into the hands of 
foreign imperialistic states, they called foreign bayonets, 
wherever they could muster them, into Russia. Hidden 
behind a forest of foreign bayonets, they are sending 
hired murderers to kill the leaders of the working class, 
in whom not only the proletariat of Russia but all the 
massacred humanity sees the personification of its hopes. 
The Russian working class will crush without mercy this 
counter-revolutionary clique, that is trying to lay the 
noose around the neck of the Russian working class with 
the help of foreign capital and the Russian bourgeoisie. 

In the face of the proletariat of the whole world we 
declare that neither hypocritical protests nor pleas will 
protect those who take up arms against the workers and 
the poorest farmers, who would starve them and em- 
broil them into new wars in ilie interests of the capitalist 
class. We assure equal rights and equal liberties to all 
who loyally do their duty as citizens of the Socialist 
Workmen's and Peasants' Government. To them we 
bring peace, but to our enemies we bring Avar without 
quarter. We "are convinced that the masses in all coun- 
tries who are writhing under the oppression of a small 
group of exploiters will understand that in Russia force 
is being used only in the holy cause of the liberation of 

52 



the people, that they will not only understand us, but 
will follow our example. 

We decidedly reject the interference of neutral capi- 
talist powers in favor of the Russian bourgeoisie, and de- 
clare that every attempt on the part of the representa- 
tives of these powers to overstep the boundaries of legal 
protection for the citizens of their own country will be 
regarded as an attempt to support the counter-revolution. 
People's Commissary of Foreign Affairs, 

G. W. TSCHITSCHERIN. 



THE WAY TO MAKE WAR IMPOSSIBLE 

ON October 24, 1918, the following note was handed in 
by People's Commissary for Foreign Affairs 
Tschitscherin to the Norwegian Attache in Moscow, Mr. 
Christiansen, for transmission to President Wilson: 
To the President of the United States of North America, 

Mr. Woodrow Wilson! 

Mr. President — In your message of January 8th to 
the Congress of the United States of North America, in 
the sixth point, you spoke of your profound sympathy 
for Russia, which was then conducting, single-handed, 
negotiations with the mighty German imperialism. Your 
programme, you declared, demands the evaluation of 
all Russian territory and such a settlement of all ques- 
tions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest 
co-operation of the other nations of the world in obtain- 
ing for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportu- 
nity for the independent determination of Her political 
development and national policy, and assure her a sin- 
cere welcome into the society of free nations under insti- 
tutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, 
assistance of every kind that she may need and may 
herself desire. And you added that "the treatment ac- 
corded to her by her sister nations in the months to come 
will be the acid test of their goodwill, of their com- 
prehension of her needs as distinguished from their own 
interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sym- 
pathy. ' ' 

53 



The desperate struggle which we were waging at 
Brest-Litovsk against German imperialism apparently 
only intensified your sympathy for Soviet Russia, for you 
sent greetings to the Congress of the Soviets, which 
under the threat of a German offensive ratified the Brest 
peace of violence — greetings and assurances that Soviet 
Russia might count upon American help. 

Six months have passed since then, and the Russian 
people have had sufficient time to get actual tests of your 
Government's and your Allies' good will, of their com- 
prehension of the needs of the Russian people, of their 
intelligent unselfish sympathy. This attitude of your 
Government and of your Allies was shown first of all in 
the conspiracy which was organized on Russian territory 
with the financial assistance of your French Allies and 
with the diplomatic co-operation of your Government as 
well — the conspiracy of the Czecho-Slovaks to whom your 
Government is furnishing every kind of assistance. 

For some time attempts had been made to create a 
pretext for a war between Russia and the United States 
by spreading false stories to the effect that German war 
prisoners had seized the Siberian Railway, but your own 
officers, and after them Colonel Robins, the head of your 
Red Cross Mission, had been convinced that these allega- 
tions were absolutely false. The Czecho-Slovak conspir- 
acy was organized under the slogan that unless these 
misled unfortunate people be protected, they would be 
surrendered to Germany and Austria; but you may find 
out, among other sources, from the open letter of Captain 
Sacloul, of 'the French Military Mission, how unfounded 
this charge is. The Czecho-Slovaks would have left Rus- 
isa in the beginning of the year had the French Govern- 
ment provided ships for them. For several months we 
have waited in vain for your Allies to provide the oppor- 
tunity for the Czecho-Slovaks to leave. Evidently these 
Governments have very much preferred the presence of 
the Czecho-Slovaks in Russia — the results show for what 
object — to their departure for France and their partici- 
pation in the fighting on the French front. The best proof 
of the real object of the Czecho-Slovak rebellion is the 

54 



fact that, although in control of the Siberian Railway, 
the Czecho-Slovaks have not taken advantage of this to 
leave Russia, but by the order of the Entente Govern- 
ments, whose directions they follow, have remained in 
Russia to become the mainstay of the Russian counter- 
revolution. Their counter-revolutionary mutiny, which 
made impossible the transportation of grain and petro- 
leum on the Volga, which cut off the Russian workers and 
peasants from the Siberian stores of grain, and other ma- 
terials and condemned them to starvation — this was the 
first experience of the workers and peasants of Russia 
with your Government and with your Allies after your 
promises of the beginning of the year. And then came 
another experience : an< attack on North Russia by Allied 
troops, including American troops, their invasion of Rus- 
sian territory without any cause and without a declara- 
tion of war, the occupation of Russian cities and villages, 
executions of Soviet officials and other acts of violence 
against the peaceful population of Russia. 

You have promised, Mr. President, to co-operate with 
Russia in order to obtain for her an unhampered and un- 
embarrassed opportunity for the independent determi- 
nation of her political development and her national pol- 
icy. Actually this co-operation took the form of an 
attempt of the Czecho-Slovak troops, and later, in Arch- 
angel, Murmansk and the Far East, of your own and your 
Allies' troops, to force the Russian people to submit to the 
rule of the oppressing and exploiting classes, whose dom- 
ination was overthrown by the workers and peasants of 
Russia, in October, 1917. The revival of the Russian 
counter-revolution, which has already become a corpse, 
attempts to restore by force its bloody domination over 
the Russian people — such was the experience of the Rus- 
sian people, instead of co-operation for the unembar- 
rassed expression of their will which, you promised them, 
Mr. President, in your declarations. 

You have also, Mr. President, promised to the Rus- 
sian people to assist them in their struggle for independ- 
ence. Actually this is what has occurred: While the 
Russian people were fighting on the Southern front 

55 



against the counter-revolution, which has betrayed them 
to German imperialism and was/ threatening their inde- 
pendence, while they were using all their energy to or- 
ganize the defense of their territory against Germany at 
their Western frontiers, they were forced to move their 
troops to the East to oppose the Czecho-Slovaks, who 
were bringing them slavery and oppression, and to the 
North — against your Allies' and your own troops, which 
had invaded their territory, and against the counter- 
revolutions organized by these troops. 

Mr. President, the acid test of the relations between 
the United States and Russia have quite different results 
from those that might have been expected from your mes- 
sage to the Congress. But we have reason not to be al- 
together dissatisfied with even these results, since the 
outrages of the counter-revolution in the East and North 
have shown the workers and peasants of Russia the aims 
of the Russian counter-revolution, and of its foreign sup- 
porters, thereby creating among the Russian people an 
iron will to defend their liberty and the conquests of the 
revolution, to defend the land that it has) given to the 
peasants and the factories that it has given to the work- 
ers. The fall of Kazan, Symbyrsk, Syzran and Samara 
should make clear to you, Mr. President, what were the 
consequences for us of the actions which followed your 
promises of January 18. Our trials helped us to create 
a strongly united and disciplined Red Army, which is 
daily growing stronger and more powerful and which is 
learning to defend the revolution. The attitude toward 
us which was actually displayed by your Government and 
by your Allies could not destroy us ; on the contrary, we 
are now stronger than we were a few months ago, and 
your present proposal of international negotiations for a 
general peace finds us\ alive and strong and in a position 
to give in the name of Russia our consent to join the ne- 
gotiations. In your note to Germany you demand the 
evacuation of occupied territories as a condition which 
must precede the armistice during which peace negotia- 
tions shall begin. We are ready, Mr. President, to con- 
clude an armistice on these conditions, and we ask you 

56 



to notify us when you, Mr. President, and your Allies in- 
tend to remove your troops from Murmansk, Archangel 
and Siberia. You refuse to conclude an armistice unless 
Germany will stop the outrages, pillaging, etc., during the 
evacuation of occupied territories. We allow ourselves, 
therefore, to draw the conclusion that you and your Allies 
will order the Czecho-Slovaks to return the part of our 
gold reserve fund which they seized in Kazan, that you 
will forbid them to continue as heretofore their acts of 
pillaging and outrages against the workers and peasants 
during their forced departure (for we will encourage 
their speedy departure, without waiting for your order), 

With regard to your other peace terms, namely, that 
the Governments which would conclude peace must ex- 
press the will of the people, you are aware that our Gov- 
ernment fully satisfies this condition. Our Government 
expresses the will of the Councils of Workmen's, Peas- 
ants' and Red Army Deputies, representing at least 80 
per cent of the Russian people. This cannot, Mr. Presi- 
dent, be said about your Government. For the sake of hu- 
manity and peace, we do not demand as a prerequisite 
of general peace negotiations that all nations participat- 
ing in the negotiations shall be represented by Councils 
of People's Commissaries, elected at a congress of Coun- 
cils of Workingmen's, Peasants and Soldiers' Deputies. 
We know that this form of government will soon be the 
general form and that a general peace, when nations 
will no more be threatened with defeat, will leave them 
free to put an, end to the system and the cliques that 
forced upon mankind this universal slaughter, and which 
will, in spite of themselves, surely lead the tortured peo- 
ples to create Soviet Governments that give exact ex- 
pression to their will. 

Agreeing to participate at present in negotiations 
with even such Governments as do not yet express the 
will of the people,we would like on our part to find out 
from you, Mr. President, in detail what is your concep- 
tion of the League of Nations, which you propose as the 
crowning work of peace. You demand the independence 
of Poland, Serbia, Belgium, and freedom for the peoples 

57 



of Austria-Hungary. You probably mean by this that 
the masses of the people must everywhere first become 
the masters of their own fate in order to unite afterward 
in a league of free nations. But, strangely enough, we 
do not find among your demands the liberation of Ire- 
land, Egypt or India, nor even the liberation of the Phil- 
ippines, and we would be very sorry if these people 
should be denied the opportunity to participate, together 
with us, through their freely elected representatives, in 
the organization of the League of Nations. 

We would also, Mr. President, very much like to 
know, before the negotiations with regard to the forma- 
tion of a League of Nations have begun, what is your 
conception of the solution of many economic questions 
which are essential for the cause of future peace. You 
do not mention the war expenditures — this unbearable 
burden which the masses would have to carry, unless the 
League of Nations should renounce payments on the 
loans to the capitalists of all countries. You know as 
well as we, Mr. President, that this war is the outcome 
of the policies of all capitalistic nations, that the gov- 
ernments of all countries were continually piling up 
armaments, that the ruling groups of all civilized nations 
pursued a policy of annexations, and that it would, there- 
fore be extremely unjust if the masses, having paid for 
these policies with millions of lives and with economic 
ruin, should yet pay to those who are really responsible 
for the war a tribute for their policies which resulted 
in all these countless miseries. We propose, therefore, 
Mr. President, the annulment of the war loans as the 
basis of the League of Nations. As to the restoration Qf 
the countries that were laid waste by the war, we be- 
lieve it is only just that all nations should in this respect 
aid the unfortunate Belgium, Poland and Serbia; and 
however poor and ruined Russia seems to be, she is ready 
on her part to do everything she can to help these victims 
of the war, and she expects that American capital, which 
has not at all suffered from this war and has even made 
mauy millions in profits out of it, will do its part to help 
these peoples. 

58 



But the League of Nations should not only liquidate 
the present war, but also make impossible any wars in 
the future. You must be aware, Mr. President, that the 
capitalists of your country are planning to apply in the 
future the same policies of encroachment and of super- 
profits in China and in Siberia; and that, fearing compe- 
tition from Japanese capitalists, they are preparing a 
military force to overcome the resistance which they may 
meet from Japan. You are no doubt aware of similar 
plans of the capitalists and ruling circles of other coun- 
tries with regard to other territories and other peoples. 
Knowing this, you will have to agree with us that the 
factories, mines and banks must not be left in the hands 
of private persons, who have always made use of the vast 
means of production created by the masses of the peo- 
ple to export products and capital to foreign countries 
in order to reap super-profits in return for the benefits 
forced on them, their struggle for spoils resulting in im- 
perialistic wars. We propose, therefore, Mr. President, 
that the League of Nations be based on the expropriation 
of the capitalists of all countries. In your country, Mr. 
President, the banks and the industries are in the hands 
of such a small group of capitalists that, as your personal 
friend, Colonel Robins, assured us, the arrest of twenty 
heads of capitalistic cliques and the transfer of the con- 
trol, which by characteristic capitalist methods they have 
come to possess, into the hands of the masses of the world 
is all that would be required to destroy the principal 
source of new wars. If you will agree to this, Mr. Presi- 
dent — if the sources of future wars will thus be de- 
stroyed — then there can be no doubt that it would be 
easy to remove all economic barriers and that all the 
peoples, controlling their means of production, will be 
vitally interested in exchanging the things they do not 
need for the things they need. It will then be a question of 
an exchange of products between nations, each of which 
produces what it can best produce, and the League of Na- 
tions will be a league of mutual aid of the toiling masses. 
It will then be easy to reduce the armed forces to the 
limit necessary for the maintenance of internal safety. 

59 



We know very well that the selfish capitalistic class 
will attempt to create this internal menace, just as the 
Russian landlords and capitalists are now attempting 
with the aid of American, English and French armed 
forces, to take the factories from the workers and the 
land from the peasants. But, if the American workers, 
inspired by your idea of a League of Nations, will crush 
the resistance of the American capitalist as we have 
crushed the resistance of the Russian capitalists, then 
neither the German nor any other capitalists will be a 
serious menace to the victorious working class, and it 
will then suffice, if every member of the commonwealth, 
working, six hours in the factory, spends two hours daily 
for several months in learning the use of arms, so that 
the whole people will know how to overcome the in- 
ternal menace. 

And so, Mr. President, though we have had expe- 
rience with your promises, we nevertheless accept as a 
basis your proposals about peace and about a League of 
Nations. We have tried to develop them in order to 
avoid results which would contradict your promises, as 
was the case with your promise of assistance to Russia. 
We have tried to formulate with precision your pro- 
posals on the League of Nations in order that the League 
of Nations should not turn out to be a league of capital- 
ists against nations. Should you not agree with us, we 
have no objection to an "open discussion of your peace 
terms/' as the first point of your peace programme de- 
mands. If you will accept our proposals as a basis, we 
will easily agree on the details. 

But there is another possibility. We have had deal- 
ings with the president of the Archangel attack and the 
Siberian invasion, and we have also had dealings with 
the president of the League of Nations Peace Programme. 
Is not the first of these — the real president — actually di- 
recting the policies of the American capitalist Govern- 
ment? Is not the American Government rather a gov- 
ernment of the American corporations, of the American 
industrial, commercial and railroad trusts, of the Ameri- 
can banks — in short, a government of the Americn capi- 

60 



talists ? And is it not possible that the proposals of this 
government about the creation of a League of Nations 
will result in new chains for the people, in the organiza- 
tion of an international trust for the exploitation of the 
workers and the suppression of weak nations? In this 
latter case, Mr. President, you will not be in a position 
to reply to ( our questions, and we will say to the workers 
of all countries : Beware ! Millions of your brothers, 
thrown at each other's throats by the bourgeoisie of all 
countries, are still perishing on the battlefields, and the 
capitalist leaders are already trying to come to an un- 
derstanding for the purpose of suppressing with united 
forces those that remain alive when they call to account 
the criminals who caused the war! 

However, Mr. President, since we do not at all desire 
to wage war against the United States, even though your 
Government has not yet been replaced by a Council of 
People's Commissaries and your post is not yet taken by 
Eugene Debs, whom you have imprisoned; since we do 
not at all desire to wage war against England, even 
though the Cabinet of Mr. Lloyd George has not yet been 
replaced by a Council of People's Commissaries with 
MacLean at its head; since we have no desire to wage 
war against Prance, even though the capitalist Govern- 
ment of Clemenceau has not yet been replaced by a 
workmen's government of Merheim; just as we have 
concluded peace with the imperialist Government of Ger- 
many, with Emperor William at its' head, whom you, Mr. 
President, feel as alien as we, the Workmen's and 
Peasants' Revolutionary Government, from you — we 
finally propose to you, Mr. President, that you take up 
with your Allies, the following questions and give us pre- 
cise and definite replies: Do the Governments of the 
United States, England and France consent to cease de- 
manding the blood of the Russian people and the lives of 
Russian citizens, if the Russian people will agree to pay 
them a ransom such as a man who has been suddenly 
attacked pays to the one who attacked him? If so, ju&t 
what tribute to the Government of the United States, 
England and France demand of the Russian people? 

61 



Do they demand concessions, that the railways, mines, 
gold deposits, etc., shall be handed over to them on cer- 
tain conditions, or do they demand territorial conces- 
sions, some part of Siberia or Caucasia, or perhaps the 
Murmansk Coast? We expect from you, Mr. President, 
that you will definitely state just what you and your 
Allies demand, and also whether the alliance between 
your Government and the Governments of the other 
Entente Powers is in the nature of a combination which 
could be compared with a corporation for drawing divi- 
dends from Russia, or does your Government and the 
other Governments of the Entente Powers have each sep- 
arate and special demands, and what are they? Particu- 
larly are we interested to know the demands of your 
French allies with regard to the three billions of rubles 
which the Paris bankers loaned to the Government of the 
Czar — the oppressor of Russia and the enemy of his own 
people. And you, Mr. President, as well as your French 
allies, surely know that even if you and your Allies 
should succeed in enslaving and covering up with blood 
the whole territory of Russia. — which will not be allowed 
by our heroic revolutionary Red Army — that even in 
that case the Russian people, worn out by the war and 
not having had sufficient time to take advantage of the 
benefits of the Soviet rule to elevate their national econ- 
omy, will be unable to pay to the French bankers the full 
tribute for the billions that were used by the Government 
of the Czar for purposes injurious to the people. Do 
your French allies demand that a part of this tribute be 
paid in installments, and if so — what part, and do they 
not anticipate that their claims will result in similar 
claims by other creditors of the infamous Government 
of the Czar which has been overthrown by the Russian 
people? We can hardly think that your Government and 
your Allies are without a ready answer, when your and 
their troops are trying to advance on our territory with 
the evident object of seizing and enslaving our country. 
The Russian people, through the people's Red Army, are 
guarding their territory and are bravely fighting against 
your invasion and against the attacks of your Allies. But 

62 



your Government and the Governments of the other 
Powers of the Entente, undoubtedly, have well prepared 
plans, for the sake of which you are shedding the blood 
of your soldiers. "We expect that you will state your 
demands very clearly and definitely. Should we, how- 
ever, be disappointed, should you fail to reply to our 
quite definite and precise questions, we will draw the 
only possible conclusion— that we are justified in the as- 
sumption that your Government and the Governments of 
your Allies desire to get from the Russian people a trib- 
ute both in money and in natural resources of Russia, 
and territorial concessions as well. We will tell this to 
the Russian people as well as to the toiling masses of 
other countries, and the absence of a reply from you will 
serve for us a.s a silent reply. The Russian people will 
then understand that the demands of your Government 
and of the Governments of your Allies are so severe and 
vast that you do not even want to communicate them to 
the Russian Government. 

People's Commissary of Foreign Affairs, 

G. W. TSCHITSCHERIN. 



THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAN 
REVOLUTION 

ADDRESSING a joint meeting of the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee of the Moscow 
Soviet and of other labor organizations held in Moscow 
on October 22, about two weeks before the breaking out 
of the revolt in Germany which forced the abdication of 
the Kaiser and hastened the practical surrender of the 
German armies on November 11, Nikolai Lenin, Bol- 
shevist Premier, as reported in the Berlin Tagwacht of 
November 7, spoke as follows : 

"Comrades, I believe our present situation, despite 
all the contradictions it contains, can be characterized 
by two theses: First, that we never before stood so 
near the international proletarian revolution as at pres- 
ent ; second, that we on the other hand never found our- 
selves in a more dangerous position than now. 

63 



"And the most serious part of our situation consists 
in the fact that the broad masses of the people are hardly 
aware of the danger that menaces us. Therefore, it 
must be one of the principal tasks of the Soviet repre- 
sentatives to make the present situation clear to the broad 
masses — no matter how difficult this task may sometimes 
be. The weightiest objection that was raised against the 
Soviet Government, not only by the bourgeoisie, but also 
from the ranks of the lower middle class that had lost 
faith in Socialism, was that we allegedly had begun the 
Socialist Revolution in Russia in a reckless manner, as 
the revolution in Western Europe was not yet due. 

"Comrades, now in the fifth year of the world war 
the general collapse of imperialism is an evident fact; 
now it is clear that the revolution in all the belligerent 
countries is unavoidable. We, however, whose existence 
at the beginning was counted by days or weeks at the 
most, have done more in this year of the revolution than 
ever has been done by any other proletarian party in the 
world. The bourgeoisie no longer denies that Bolshevism 
is now an international phenomenon. Of course, you 
know that the revolution has broken out in Bulgaria and 
that the Bulgarian soldiers are organizing Councils, So- 
viets, after the Russian model. Now comes the news that 
similar Soviets are in the process of being organized also 
in Serbia. The national bourgeoisie of the various small 
states of Austria will not be able to hold out. In Austria, 
too, the revolution of the workers and peasants is knock- 
ing at the door everywhere. 

"In Germany the press already talks openly of the 
abdication of the Kaiser, and the Independent Social 
Democratic Party now dares to speak of the German 
Republic. This certainly means something! The Ger- 
man revolution is already a fact. The military party 
talks about it openly. In East Prussia revolutionary 
committees have been formed ; revolutionary slogans are 
being uttered. The Scheidemann gang will not remain 
at the helm very long; it does not represent the broad 
masses of the people, and the proletarian revolution in 
Germany is inevitable. 

64 



"So far as Italy is concerned, the revolutionary 
sentiment of the proletariat of that country is evident to 
us. When Gompers, the social patriot who has handed 
himself over to the bourgeoisie, visited the cities of Italy 
and) preached patriotism to the workers, he was hissed 
out everywhere. During the war the Italian Socialist 
Party has taken a big step toward the left. 

"In France at the beginning of the war the number 
of patriots among the workers was only too great, for it 
was declared that the soil of France and Paris were men- 
aced. But there, too, the attitude of the proletariat is 
changing. When a letter was read to the last convention 
telling what mischief the Entente was up to in Russia 
there were shouts of 'Long live the Russian Socialist Re- 
public!' and 'Long live the Soviets!' Yesterday we got 
word that at a meeting held in Paris, 2000 metal workers 
greeted the Soviet Republic. 

"And in England it is true that the so-called Inde- 
pendent Socialist (Labor?) Party has not openly entered 
into an alliance with the Bolsheviki, but its sympathies 
for us are constantly on the increase. The Socialist 
Labor Parties of Scotland have even come out openly for 
the Bolsheviki. 

"This fact looms up before us entirely on its own 
initiative. Bolshevism has become a world theory and 
the tactics of the international proletariat. And the 
workingmen of all countries, who formerly read only the 
lying and calumnious articles and the news reports of the 
bourgeois press, are now beginning to take stock of 
what is happening in Russia. And when last Wednesday 
a demonstration took place in Berlin, and the workers — 
in order to show their ill-will toward the Kaiser — wanted 
to march in front of his palace, they then went to the 
Russian Embassy in order thus to announce their soli- 
darity with the act of the Russian labor government. 

"So, Europe has got this far in the fifth year of the 
war. Therefore, we also declare that we never were so 
near to the world-wide revolution as we are today. Our 
allies are millions and millions of proletarians in all the 
countries of the world. But for all that, I repeat that 

65 



our situation never before was so precarious as it is at 
present, because in Europe, as well as in America, Bol- 
shevism is being reckoned with as a world power and a 
world danger. 

"Immediately following the conclusion of the peace 
of violence (Brest-Litovsk) we began the positive work 
of building up the republic. As soon as we gave an op- 
portunity to the peasants actually to get along without 
the land owners, and a chance to the industrial workers 
to arrange their own life without the capitalists, as soon 
as the people understood that it could manage the State 
itself, without slavery and exploitation, then it became 
clear to everyone, and also manifested itself in practice, 
that no power and no counter-revolution in the 
world would be able to overthrow the Soviet power, i, e., 
the government of the workers and peasants. It required 
many months for us to come to this conviction in Russia. 

"In the cities the revolution began to consolidate 
itself already in November, 1917, but in the country it 
did not do so until the summer of 1918. In the Ukraine, 
on the Don, and in various other places, the peasants 
have had occasion to feel the power of the Constituants 
and the Czech-Slovaks in their own affairs. This re- 
quired many, many months, but our agricultural popula- 
tion comes out of the struggle hardened. The farmers 
finally became aware of the danger menacing them from 
the side of the capitalists and the land owners, but were 
not frightened, and merely said to themselves: 'We have 
learned much in a single year, but we shall learn still 
more.' 

"The West Europe bourgeoisie, that up to now has 
not taken the Bolsheviki seriously, is now becoming aware 
that in Russia a power has arisen and stands there alone 
which is able to arouse true heroism and a genuine spirit 
of self-sacrifice in the masses. When this proletarian 
power began to infect Europe the bourgeoisie of the world 
noted that it, too, must reckon with this enemy. And so 
the bourgeoisie began to unite more closely in proportion 
as we drew nearer to the proletarian world revolution 
which flared up, now here, now there. 

66 



"Now the situation for us, for the Russia of the So- 
viets, has changed and events are following their course 
at a quickened pace. Before, we had to deal with two 
groups of imperialistic robber states, that were striving 
to destroy each other. But now they have noticed, espe- 
cially by the example of German imperialism, that their 
principal enemy is the revolutionary proletariat. By 
reason of this fact a new danger for us has now arisen, a 
danger that as yet has not quite unfolded itself, and is 
not yet fully visible — the danger that the Anglo-French 
imperialists are quietly preparing for us. We must keep 
this danger clearly before our eyes, so that we, with the 
aid of the leaders of the masses, with the help of the rep- 
resentatives of the workers and peasants, may make the 
broad masses of the people aware of this danger. 

"In German Government circles we may now ob- 
serve two lines of thought, two plans for salvation, as it 
were, if there can be any talk at all of salvation. One 
group says: 'We want to gain time and hold out until 
spring; perhaps we may succeed in winning by arms!' 
The other group says that it is of the greatest importance 
to arrive at an agreement with England and France at 
the expense of the Bolsheviki. In this connection one 
might believe that between the English and French on 
the one side and Germany on the other a tacit agreement 
something like this exists: 'Don't you Germans leave 
the Ukraine so long as we have not yet arrived there. 
See to it that the Bolsheviki don't get in, then everything 
else will be adjusted.' And the Germans take great pains 
to do so, for they know that for proved service they, too, 
will get some of the loot. 

"That is the judgment of the Anglo-French impe- 
rialists, for they very well understand that the bour- 
geoisie of the occupied districts — Finland, the Ukraine, 
or Poland — will not be able to hold its ground a single 
day after the withdrawal of the German garrisons. And 
the bourgeoisie of these countries, who only yesterday 
sold their territory to the Germans, are today offering 
their fatherland to the English and the French.. This 
conspiracy of the bourgeoisie of all countries against the 

67 



revolutionary workers and the Bolsheviki is constantly 
becoming more clearly outlined and becomes cynically 
apparent. So it is our direct duty to point out this dan- 
ger to the workers and peasants of all the belligerent 
countries. 

"But for us, comrades, the German revolution is fa- 
vorable. Considering the power and the degree of or- 
ganization of the German proletariat, we may believe 
that the German revolution will develop such power and 
will be so well organized that it will solve a hundred 
international problems. Only we must know how to 
march in line with the German revolution, not to run 
ahead of it and injure it, but to help it. And our com- 
rades, the communists of the Ukraine, must bear this in 
mind. Our principal work must be carrying on propa- 
ganda, but a daring, persistent propaganda. 

"We must not forget that Germany forms the most 
important link in the revolutionary chain. The success 
of the world revolution depends to the greatest degree 
upon Germany. We must not fail to consider the changes 
and excrescences accompanying ( every revolution. In 
every country the revolution follows its particular ways 
and these ways are so different and tortuous that in 
many countries the revolution can be delayed one or two 
years. Every country must pass through definite politi- 
cal stages in order to arrive at the very same point, the 
inevitable proletarian revolution. And although the in- 
ternational proletariat is now awakening and making im- 
portant progress, we must confess that our position is 
particularly difficult because our enemies direct their at- 
tacks against us as their principal enemy. Now they are 
preparing to fight, not against hostile armies, but against 
international Bolshevism. 

"We must direct our entire attention at present to 
our southern front, where the fate, not only of Russia, 
but also of the international revolution, is to be decided. 
We have many prospects of victory. But what favors us 
most af all is the fact that a change has taken place in 
the popular feeling. The people has grasped the fact 
that in defending Soviet Russia it is not defending the 

68 



interests of the capitalists, but its own interests, its own 
country and desires, its factories and shops, its life and 
liberty. The discipline of the Red Army is gaining, but 
it is not the discipline of the club, but the discipline of 
Socialism, the discipline of a society of equals. 

"The army is turning out thousands of officers who 
have gone through the course of study in the new pro- 
letarian military schools, and other thousands who have 
only gone through the hard school of war itself. Our 
southern front is the front against the whole Anglo- 
French imperialism, against the most important oppo- 
nent we have in the world. But we do not fear this op- 
portunity, for we know that it will soon face the strug- 
gle with its 'internal enemy/ Three months ago it was 
said that only the half-crazy Bolsheviki could believe in 
the German revolution; but today Ave see how in the 
course of a few months Germany has changed from a 
mighty empire to a rotten tree trunk. The force that has 
overthrown Germany is also working in England. It is 
only weak today, but with every step that the English 
and French advance in Russia this force will steadily 
§ rise to power and will even become more terrible than 
the Spanish influenza. 

"The seriousness of the situation must be apparent 
to every worker who knows what he is aiming at and he 
must make the masses see it, too. The people of workers 
and peasants is mature enough to be allowed to know 
the whole truth. The danger is great, but we must, and 
shall, overcome it, and for this purpose we must develop 
and solidify the Red Army without halting. We must 
make it ten times as strong and large as it is. Our forces 
must grow with every day, and this constant growth will 
give us the guarantee, as before, that international So- 
cialism will be the victor." 



A MEMORANDUM FROM THE RUSSIAN SOVIET 
REPRESENTATIVE. 

On Thursday, March 20th, it was announced that Mr. L. A. 
Martens had been appointed official representative of the Rus- 
sian Soviet Republic in the United States, and that he had for- 
warded his credentials to Washington on the preceding day. 

69 



We are now enabled to give out the memorandum submit- 
ted with the official credentials to the State Department. In 
this interesting document Mr. Martens reviews the guiding lines 
pursued by the Soviet Government in its relations with other 
governments, and emphasizes the desire of the Soviet Govern- 
ment to enter into trade relations with the United States. He 
also gives an outline of the present situation in Russia. In 
support of this statement, Mr. Martens quotes a note to Presi- 
dent Wilson in December, when the latter was in London, from 
Maxim Litvinoff, an authorized representative of the Soviet 
Government, then in Sweden. This and other data mentioned 
in the memorandum reprinted below, can be found in the pre- 
vious four numbers of the Bulletin. 

The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic was estab- 
lished on the 6th of November, 1917, by a spontaneous uprising 
of the toiling masses of Russia. Its Government, the Council 
of the People's Commissars, is a Government controlled by and 
responsible to all such members of the population of Russia 
are willing to perform useful work, physical or mental. Those 
who, while not being unable to work, deliberately refuse to 
exercise their productive abilities, choosing to live on the 
fruits of the labor of other people, are eliminated from partici- 
pation in the control of my Government. 

Under present conditions those who are willing to work 
for the common good, number at least ninety per cent of the 
adult population in the area controlled by the Soviets. All 
such people have full political and civic rights. 

The basis for citizenship in Russia being industrial and 
economic rather than political, and the social system being 
of such a nature that every person engaged in useful social 
labor is bound to participate in public affairs, the percentage 
of people directly participating in the management of society 
in Soviet Russia is higher than has been the case anywhere in 
the world hitherto. The Russian Soviet Republic affords there- 
by the widest possible field for a real expression of a conscious 
popular will. While the Soviet Government is a Government 
of the working class, the abolition of exploitation of labor 
and the elimination! thereby of class division creates a pro- 
ductive community in which all able inhabitants are bound to 
become useful workers who have full political rights. My 
government thus becomes the expression of fully one hundred 
per cent of the people. It should also be noted that political 
rights are granted in Russia to every inhabitant engaged in 
useful work, though he be not a citizen of Russia but only tem- 
porarily working there. 

The Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic was rapidly ac- 
claimed by the vast majority of the laboring people throughout 
the former empire of Russia. It has maintained itself in the 
face of manifold plots and opposition on the part of small groups 
of the former ruling classes who in many cases enlisted foreign 

70 



help and who employed the most unscrupulous methods in their 
fight against the Soviet institutions. Yet, nowhere in Russia 
could such elements of their own accord organize any notice- 
able resistance to the popular will, as expressed by the Soviet 
Government. Only in sparsely populated outlying districts and 
in such of those districts where our opponents had access to for- 
eign military help, has it been possible for them to maintain 
any organized opposition and to wrest from the control of Soviet 
Russia any territory. Today, after sixteen months of existence 
the Russian Soviet Republic finds itself more securely established 
than at any previous time. 

During the current year the Soviet Government has been 
particularly successful in retaking vast territories wrested from 
its control during the preceding months. By February, 1919, the 
Soviet troops on the northern front had retaken the city of 
Shenkursk and adjoining territory. On the Eastern front they 
have lost Perm, but they have regained Pereufa, Ufa, Sterlita- 
mak, Bellbey, Orenburg and Uralsk. The railroad connection 
with Central Asia is at present in the hands of the Soviet Gov- 
ernment. On the Southern front they have taken the railroad 
stations of Pavorino, Alexikovo, Polovaya, Kalatsk and Begut- 
char, which have assured them of a control over the railroads 
of that region, while on the southeastern front the Ukrainian 
Soviet troops threaten the army of Krasnov from Ugansk in the 
rear. In the Ukraine the Soviet troops have acquired Kharkov, 
Yekaterinoslav, Poltava, Krementchug, Tchernikov, and Obrutch. 
In the Baltic provinces and in Lithuania the Soviet power has 
been extended over a great part of the territory formerly oc- 
cupied by Germans, with the large cities of Minsk, Vilna, Riga, 
Mitau, Dvinsk, Windau and others in the control of adherents 
of the Soviet. 

These last mentioned successes are largely due to the fact 
that after the evacuation by the German armies of the territories 
wrested from Russia during the war and by the peace treaty 
of Brest Litovsk, which the Soviet Republic was forced to sign 
under duress, the workers in such territories everywhere are 
rising to support the ideals and the social order represented by 
the Soviet Republic. 

The resentment against the former ruling classes, who did 
not hesitate to invite foreign military help against their own 
people has evinced itself in an ever increasing popular support 
of the Soviet Government, even among such people as at first 
were either hostile or indifferent to the Soviet rule. Men and 
women of literary or technical training and of intellectual ac- 
complishments are now in great numbers rallying to the sup- 
port of the Soviet Government and co-operate with it in all 
administrative branches. The peasantry of Russia, the great 
majority of which from the very outset was in support of the 
workers' revolution, has become more consciously attached to 
our social system, realizing that in the support of the workers' 

71 



republic lies the only guarantee for their remaining in control 
of the land which they have wrested from their former oppres- 
sors. The economic isolation of Russia which so far has pre- 
vented the Soviet Government from adequately supplying the 
peasants with implements that they so badly need, is of course 
causing hardship among the peasantry, yet the peasants gen- 
erally do not place the blame for this privation at the door 
of the Soviet Government, well realizing that it is due to the 
deliberate interference in the affairs of the Russian people by 
hostile groups and that a remedy for this privation is not a 
weakening but a strengthening of the Soviet power. They fully 
realized — and their experience in such instances where counter- 
revolutionary iforces temiporarily succeeded in overthrowing 
Soviet institutions clearly demonstrated the correctness of this 
realization — that an overthrow of the Soviet rule, if possible 
at all, would lead to the establishment of a tyrannical, reaction 
ary, bloody autocracy. 

The remarkable improvement in the internal situation of 
Soviet Russia appears from the negotiations which the members 
of the former Constituent Assembly have begun with the Soviet 
Government. Representatives of the former Constituent As- 
sembly, as Chernov, Rakitnikov, Svatitzki, Volski, Bourevoy, 
Chernenkov, Antonov, all of whom are also members of the 
Central Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party, recently 
arrived in Moscow to participate in a conference with the Soviet 
Government with the view of giving support to our republic. 
This conference has led to an understanding whereby these 
well known Social Revolutionists and former bitter opponents 
have ceased their opposition and declared themselves with 
great emphasis against the Entente intervention in Russia. 

An improvement of the Soviet Government's relations with 
the elements formerly hostile to it in Russian society is also 
indicated by the change of the attitude of the Mensheviki, whose 
conference has likewise protested against the E'ntente inter- 
vention. 

The army of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic 
has been successfully organized and number today over a 
million men. A system of universal military training has been 
inaugurated which steadily supplies the army with accessions 
with a view of creating a force numbering, by the end of the 
current year three million men. The forces of the Government 
are led partly by officers of the former Russian armies who have 
proved their allegiance to the Soviet Government and partly 
by officers developed from the rank and file by the military 
educational institutions established by my government. The 
Commissariat of War has been successful in establishing 
and maintaining a strict discipline within the ranks of the 
army, a discipline not based on fear of punishment or on docile 
submission, but on the ardent conviction of the workers from 

72 






whose ranks the army is recruited that it is their privilege 
as well as their duty to defend their social achievements against 
encroachments from any sources. This same conviction of the 
necessity of the defense of our revolutionary achievements has 
made it possible for us, in spite of all economic obstacles, effi- 
ciently to organize the production of military supplies. 

The Soviet Government inherited a legacy of utter financial 
disruption created by four years of war and a year of revolu- 
tion. This state of affairs, and also the necessity of co-ordinating 
the financial system of Russia with the new industrial and eco- 
nomic system represented by my Government, necessitated a 
complete reorganization of the financial institutions on the 
basis of common property rights. This reorganization which 
aims at exchanging the money system for a system representing 
labor value is still in the state of formation. Regardless there- 
of the Soviet Government in as far as financial relations with 
and obligations to other countries are concerned, is prepared to 
offer modes of financial transactions adapted to the financial 
system of other countries. 

The period preceding the establishment of the Soviet Gov- 
ernment also badly disrupted the machinery for producing and 
distributing. The Soviet Government inaugurated a system 
of public control and ownership of industries. It has actually 
taken over many important branches of industry, and has estab- 
lished the control of the Supreme Council of National Economy 
over all industries. Great handicaps have been faced because 
of the obstructionist methods of our opponents, lack of raw 
material and machinery, and because of the general confusion 
unavoidably coincident with the gigantic reorganization of 
the industrial life. In spite of these handicaps, various branches 
of industry have been reestablished, even with an increase of 
productive efficiency. Many branches of industry, hqwever, have 
not so far been able to recuperate, because of lack of raw ma- 
terial and lack of machinery. The needs of such industries 
offer a wide field for business transactions with Russia by other 
countries. 

The state of railroad communications at the outset of the 
Soviet regime was very unsatisfactory. The demands first of 
the demobilization of the old army and later of military oper- 
ations against counter-revolutionary attacks taxed the capacity 
of our railroads and left little opportunity for reconstruction 
work in this field. The Soviet Government during the past 
year, nevertheless, has managed to build and to complete the 
building of about 2,000 versts of new railroads. It has also 
paid great attention to the construction of other means of com- 
munication, such as canals, roads, etc., and is at the present 
time planning work along these lines on a large scale, which 
will also offer great opportunities for foreign trade. 

The people of Russia, kept for hundreds of years away from 
sources of popular education, have made it one of the main 

73 



tasks of my Government to reorganize the school system with 
the view of the greatest possible achievements in the field 
of popular education. In this respect extensive work has been 
carried on throughout Russia during the past year. Tens of 
thousands of new primary schools, vocational schools, workers' 
universities and lecture courses, especially courses offering 
agricultural instruction, have been established and maintained 
at great expense on the part of the Soviet Government and the 
field of the educational activities has been extended to include 
the making of the treasures of the arts and sciences as easily 
accessible to the people as possible. 

All these efforts, incomplete as they still are, have, never- 
theless given the Russian people sufficient evidence of the earn- 
estness of the desire and of the ability of the Soviet Govern- 
ment to fill the needs of the population and they have greatly 
contributed to the abatement of opposition. Inasmuch as oppo- 
sition has ceased in the form of active resistance to the Soviet 
Government it has become possible to lighten such extraordi- 
nary measures as censorship, martial law, etc. 

Much prejudice has been created against the Soviet Gov- 
ernment by the circulation of false reports about the nature 
of the institutions of and the measures undertaken by Soviet 
Russia. One of the most frequent allegations has been that the 
rule of the Soviets is one of violence and murder. In this con- 
nection I want to call your attention to the following passages 
in the note sent to the President of the United States on the 
24th of December, 1918, by Maxim Litvinoff, on behalf of the 
Soviet Government in Russia. 

— — — "The chief aim of the Soviets is to secure for 
the toiling majority of Russian people economic liberty without 
which political liberty is of no avail to them. For eight months 
the Soviets endeavored to realize their aims by peaceful meth- 
ods without resorting to violence, adhering to the abolition of 
capital punishment which abolition had been part of their pro- 
gram. It was only when their adversaries, the minority of the 
Russian people, took to terroristic acts against popular mem- 
bers of the Government and invoked the help of foreign troops, 
that the laboring masses were driven to acts of exasperation 
and gave vent to their wrath and bitter feelings against their 
former oppressors. For allied invasion of Russian territory not 
only compelled the Soviets against their own will to militarize 
the country anew and to divert their energies and resources, so 
necessary to the economic reconstruction of Russia, exhausted 
by four years of war, to the defense of the country, but also cut 
off the vital sources of foodstuffs and raw material, exposing the 
population to the most terrible privation bordering on star- 
vation." 

— — — "I wish to emphasize that the so-called red 
terror, which is so grossly exaggerated and misrepresented 
abroad, was not the cause but the direct outcome and result 

74 



of allied intervention. The Russian workers and peasants fail 
to understand how foreign countries, which never dreamt of 
interfering with Russian affairs when Czarist barbarism and 
militarism ruled supreme, and which even supported that re- 
gime, feel justified in intervening in Russia now when the work- 
ing people themselves, after decades of strenuous struggling and 
countless sacrifices, succeeded in taking the power and destiny 
of their country into their own hands, aiming at nothing but 
their own happiness and international brotherhood, constitut- 
ing no menace to other nations. " 

In another passage of the same note Mr. Litvinoff states 
as follows: 

— — — "The best means for the termination of vio- 
lence in Russia would be to reach a settlement which would 
include the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Russia and 
the cessation of direct or indirect assistance to such groups in 
Russia as still indulge in futile hopes of an armed revolt 
against the Workers' Government but who by themselves alone 
would not think of such a possibility if they could not reckon 
on assistance from abroad." 

The great work of social reconstruction inaugurated by 
the Soviet Government as the executors of the people's will has 
been hampered by the necessity of military defense against the 
opponents of our republic, and by the economic isolation of 
Soviet Russia which has been one of the weapons of their at- 
tacks, together with deliberate disruption of our means of 
communications with important food centers, as well as de- 
struction of food stores, — and all this has greatly increased the 
sufferings of our people. By tremendous efforts and by efficient 
consolidation of all economic means at its disposal, my Gov- 
ernment has been able to stave off the worst features of this 
situation. The fact that economic disruption together with 
starvation and lack even the bare necessities of life prevails 
so poignantly, and all the more in such parts of the former 
Russian empire as have been for some time in the hands of the 
opponents of our republic and which have had contact with the 
outside world, clearly testifies that the Soviet rule is much 
more capable of insuring means of existence to the people than 
any pretenders to the power in Russia. 

In view of all that is stated above, I venture to say that 
the Soviet Government has given all such proofs of stability, 
permanence, popular support and constructive ability as ever 
have been required from any Government in the world as a 
basis for political recognition and commercial intercourse. I 
am confident that the people outside of Russia are becoming 
as convinced as the Russian people themselves of the futility 
of efforts to overthrow the Soviet Government. Such efforts 
lead only to unnecessary bloodshed and if successful in any 
part of Russia, lead to temporary establishment of a bloody, 
monarchial autocracy, which cannot maintain itself and even 

75 



the temporary existence of which will lead to bloodshed and 
misery. 

Fully realizing that the economic prosperity of the world 
at large, including Soviet Russia, depends on uninterrupted in- 
terchange of products between various countries, the Soviet 
Government of Russia desires to establish commercial rela- 
tions with other countries, and especially with the United States. 
The Soviet Government is prepared at once to buy from the 
United States vast amounts of finished products, on terms of 
payment fully satisfactory to the parties concerned. My Gov- 
ernment also desires to reach an agreement in respect to ex- 
ports from Russia of raw material needed by other countries 
and of which considerable surpluses exist in Russia. In order 
to re-establish the economic integrity of Russia and to insure 
uninterrupted commercial relations, the Russian workers and 
peasants, as Mr. Litvinoff stated in the above quoted note, 
"are prepared to go any length of concessions as far as the 
real interests of other countries are concerned, of course with 
the understanding that no agreements entered into should im- 
pair the sovereignty of the Russian people, as expressed by the 
Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic. 

On the part of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic 
there thus exist no obstacles to the establishment of proper 
relations with other countries, especially with the United 
States. The Soviet Government of Russia is willing to open 
its doors to citizens of other countries for peaceful pursuit of 
opportunity, and it invites any scrutiny and investigation of its 
conditions, which I feel sure will prove that peace and prosperity 
in Russia, — and elsewhere, in as far as the prosperity of Russia 
affects other countries — may be attained by the cessation of 
the present policy of nonintercourse with Soviet Russia, and 
by the establishment of material and intellectual intercourse. 

Russia is now prepared to purchase in the American mar- 
ket great quantities of the following commodities, commensu- 
rate with the needs of 150,000,000 people: Railroad supplies, 
agricultural inplements and machinery, factory machinery, 
tools, mining machinery and supplies, electrical supplies, print- 
ing machinery, textile manufactures, shoes and clothing, fats 
and canned meats, rubber goods, typewriters and office sup- 
plies, automobiles and trucks, chemicals, medical supplies, etc. 

Russia is prepared to sell the following commodities: Flax, 
hemp, hides, bristles, furs, lumber, grain, platinum, metals and 
minerals. 

The Russian Government, in the event of trade being opened 
with the United States, is prepard to place at once in banks in 
Europe and America, gold to the amount of two hundred mil- 
lion dollars ($200,000,000) to cover the price of initial purchases. 

To insure a basis for credits for additional Russian pur- 
chases in the United States, I suggest that detailed negotiations 

76 



with my Government will evolve propositions fully acceptable 
for this purpose. 

I am empowered by my Government to negotiate for the 
speedy opening of commercial relations for the mutual benefit 
of Russia and America, and I shall be glad to discuss details at 
the earliest opportunity. 

(Signed) L. A. Martens, Representative in the United States 
of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic. 

(Signed) S. Nuorteva, Secretary of the Bureau of the Repre- 
sentatives. 



THE RED FUNERAL AT VLADIVOSTOK 

By Albert Rhys Williams in the New Republic 

IT was the Fourth of July. I was standing on the Kitais- 
kaya looking down upon the holiday flags on the American 
battleship in Vladivostok Bay. Suddenly I heard a far- 
away sound. Listening, I caught the strains of the revolu- 
tionary hymn: 

"With heavy hearts and sad we bring our dead 
Who shed their blood in the fight for freedom. " 

Looking up, I saw on the crest of the hill the first lines 
of the funeral procession of the gruzschiki. 

Four days before, when the Czecho-Slovaks, aided by 
Japanese and English troops, suddenly seized the Soviet and 
its officials, throwing confusion and terror into the ranks of 
the workers, the gruzschiki (longshoremen) rushed into the 
Red Staff Building, and, though outnumbered forty to one, 
refused to surrender until the building was fired by an incen- 
diary bomb. 

Today, their people were burying the defenders of the 
fallen Soviet. Out of the workmen's quarters they streamed, 
jamming the street not from curb to curb but from wall to 
wall. They came billowing over the hilltop by thousands un- 
til the whole long slope was choked with the dense slow- 
moving throng, keeping time to the funeral march of the 
revolutionists. 

Up through the gray and black mass of men and women 
ran two lines of white-bloused sailors of the Bolshevik fleet. 
Above their heads tossed a cloud of crimson standards with 
silvered cords and tassels. In the vanguard, four men carried 
a huge red banner with the words: "Long live the Soviet of 
Workmen's and Peasants' Deputies! Hail to the International 
Brotherhood of Toilers!" 

A hundred girls in white, carrying the green wreaths 
from forty-four unions of the city, formed a guard of honor 
for the coffins of the gruzschiki, which, with the red paint 
still wet upon them, were borne upon the shoulders of their 
comrades. The music crashed out by the Red Fleet Band was 
lost in the volume of song that rose from the seventeen 
thousand singers. 

77 



e 



Here was color and sound and motion — but there was a 
something else, a something which compelled fear and awe. 
I have seen a score of the great processions of Petrograd and 
Moscow, peace and victory and protest and memorial parades, 
military and civilian. They were all vast and impressive be 
cause the Russians have a genius for this kind of thing. 

But this was different. 

From the defenseless poor, stripped of their arms, anc 
with sorrow bearing of their dead, there came a threat more 
menacing than that which frowned from the twelve-inch guns 
of the Allied Fleet, riding in the harbor below. It was im 
possible not to feel it. It was so simple, so spontaneous and 
so elemental. It came straight out of the heart of the people. 
It was the people, leaderless, isolated, beaten to earth, thrown 
upon its own resources and yet out of its grief rising mag 
nificently to take command of itself. 

The dissolution of the Soviet, instead of plunging th 
people into inactive grief and dissipating their forces, begot 
a strange, unifying spirit. Seventeen thousand separate souls 
were welded into one. Seventeen thousand people, singing in 
unison found themselves thinking in unison. With a com- 
mon massi will and mass consciousness, they formulated their 
decision from their class standpoint — the determined stand- 
point of the revolutionary proletariat. 

The Czeko-Slovaks came, offering a guard of honor, "Ne 
noozhna! ,, (It is not necessary!) they replied. "You killed 
our comrades. Forty to one you fought against them. They 
died for the Soviet and we are proud of them. We thank you 
but we cannot let the guns which shot them down guard them 
in their death!" 

"But there may be danger for you in the city," said the 
authorities. 

"Never mind," they answered. "We, too, are not afraid 
of death. And what better way to die than beside the bodies 
of our comrades!" 

Some bourgeois societies came presenting memorial 
wreaths. (The Cadets officially denied that these wreaths 
came from them.) 

"Ne noozhna, it is not necessary," the people answered. 
"Our comrades died in a struggle against the bourgeoisie. 
They died fighting clean. We must keep their memory clean. 
We thank you but we dare not lay your wreaths upon their 
coffins." 

The prosession poured down the Aleutskaiya Hill, filled 
the large, open space at the bottom, and faced up toward the 
English Consulate. Near by was a work-car with a tower for 
repairing electric wires. Whether it was there by design or 
accident I do not know. Presently it was to serve as a speak- 
er's rostrum. But there seemed to be no speaker and no pro- 
gramme. There was only a crowd and stillness. 

78 



The band played a solemn dirge. The men bared their 
heads. The women bowed. The music^ceased and there was 
silence. And yet there was no speaker. It was like a huge 
Quaker meeting in the open air. And just as a sermon has 
no place in Russian public worship so here a speech was not 
essential to this act of public devotion. But should someone 
from the people feel the impulse to speak there was the plat- 
form awaiting him. It was as if in the pause the people were 
generating a voice. 

At last out of the crowd one came and climbed upon the 
high platform. He had not the gift of oratory, but his frequent 
iteration, "They died for us," "They died for us," touched 
others to utterance. 

Most eloquent of all was a lad of seventeen, the secretary 
of the league of young Socialists. 

"We were students, and artists and such kind of people. 
We held ourselves aloof from the Soviet," he said. "It seemed 
to us foolish for workmen to govern without the wisdom of 
the wise. But now we know that you were right and we were 
wrong. From now on we shall stand with you. What you do, 
we will do. We pledged our tongues and pens to make known 
the wrongs that you have suffered the length and breadth of 
Russia and throughout the world." 

Suddenly the word went through the throng that Constan- 
tin Soochanov had been paroled until five o'clock and that he 
was coming with counsels of peace and moderation. Soochanov 
was the president of the Soviet, a student twenty-four years 
of age, son of a high official of the Czar, and hero in a revo- 
lution that is not given to hero-worship. 

While some were affirming his coming and others were 
denying it, he himself appeared. He was quickly passed 
along the shoulders of the sailors. In a storm of cheers, he 
climbed the ladder and came out upon the platform-top, 
smiling. 

Twice his eyes swept across that field of upturned faces, 
filled with trust and love and hungrily awaiting the words of 
their young leader. As if to avert the flood of tragedy and 
pathos that beat suddenly upon him from every side, he 
turned his head away. His eyes fell for the first time upon 
the red coffins of the men who had been slain in defense of his 
Soviet and upon the mothers, wives and children of the men 
who lay within -them. That was too much for him. A shudder 
passed through his frame, he threw up his hands, staggered 
and would have fallen headlong into the crowd, but a friend 
caught him. With both hands pressed to his face, Soochanov, 
in the arms of his comrades, sobbed like a child. We could 
see his breath come and go and the tears raining down his 
cheeks. The Russians are little given to tears. But that day 
there were seventeen thousand Russians who sobbed with their 
young leader on the public square of Vladivostok. 

79 



But Soochanov knew that many tears were an indulgence 
and that he had a big and serious task to perform. Fifty feet 
behind him was the English Consulate and fifty rods before 
him were the waters of the Golden Horn with the frowning 
guns of the Allied Fleet. He wrenched himself away from his 
grief and gathering himself together began his message. With 
an ever mounting passion of earnestness he spoke, closing 
with the words which shall henceforth be the rallying cry for 
the workers in Vladivostok and the Far East: 

"Here before the Red Staff Building where our comrades 
gruzschiki were slain, we swear by these red coffins that hold 
them, by their wives and children that weep for them, by the 
red banners which float over them, that the Soviet for which 
they died shall be the thing for which we live — or ir need be — - 
like them, die. Henceforth the return of the Soviet shall be 
the goal of all our sacrifice and devotion. To that end we 
shall fight with sticks and clubs, and when these are gone 
then with our bare fists and bodies. Now it is for us to fight 
only with our hands and spirits. Let us make them hard and 
strong and unyielding. The Soviet is dead. Long live the 
Soviet!" 

The crowd caught up the closing words in a tremendous 
demonstration mingled with the strains of the "Interna- 
tional": 

"Arise ye prisoners of starvation, 
Arise ye wretched of the earth, 
For Justice thunders condemnation 
A better world's in birth — " 

The resolution proclaiming the restoration of the Soviet 
the object of all the future struggles of the revolutionary 
proletariat and peasants of the Far East was read. At the 
call for the vote seventeen thousand hands shot into the air. 
They were the hands which had built the cars and paved the 
streets, forged the iron, held the plow and swung the hammer. 
All kinds of hands they were: the big, rough hands of the old 
gruzschiki, the artisans' deft and sinewy, the knotted hands 
of the peasants, thick with callouses and thousands of the 
frailer, white hands of the working women. By these hands 
riches of the Far East had been wrought. They were no 
different from the scarred, stained hands of labor anywhere 
in all the world. Except in this regard. For a time they had 
held the power. The government had been within their grasp. 
Four days ago it had been wrested from their grasp but the 
feel of it was still within their hands — these hands, raised 
now in solemn pledge to take that power again .... 

A sailor, striding down from the hilltop, pushed through 
the crowd and climbed upon the platform. "Comrades! Com- 
rades!" he cried joyously, "We are not alone. We are not alone. 
I ask you look away to the flags flying over there on the Ameri- 
can battleship. But you cannot see them down there where you 
stand. But they are there. And with the flags of all other na- 

80 






tions there is the red flag of our Russian Republic. No, com- 
rades, we are not alone today in our grief. The Americans 
understand and they are with us!" 

It was a mistake, of course. Those flags had been hung 
out in celebration of our Day of Independence. But the 
crowd did not know that. To them it was like the sudden 
touch of a friend's hand upon a lonely traveler in a foreign 
land. With enthusiasm they caught up the cry of the sailor: 
"The Americans are with us!" And the vast conclave, lifting 
up their coffins, wreaths and banners were once more in mo- 
tion. They were going to the cemetery but not directly. Tired 
as they were from long standing in the sun, they made a 
wide detour to reach the street that runs up the hill to the 
American Consulate. Then straight up to the sharp slope they 
toiled in a cloud of dust, still singing as they marched, until 
they came before the stars and stripes floating from the flag- 
staff. And there they stopped and laid the coffins of their dead 
beneath the flag of the great western democracy. 

They stretched out their hands crying. "Speak to us a 
word!" They sent delegates within to implore that word. On 
the day the great republic of the west celebrated its independ- 
ence the poor and disinherited of Russia came asking sym- 
pathy and understanding in the struggle for their inde- 
pendence. Afterwards, I heard a Bolshevik leader bitterly 
resentful at this "compromise with revolutionary honor and 
integrity." 

"How stupid of them," he said. "How insane of them! 
Have we not told them that all countries are alike — all im- 
perialists? Was this not repeated to them over and over again 
by their leaders?" 

Truly it had been. But with this demonstration of the 
Fourth of July the leaders had little to do. They were in 
prison. The affair was in the hands of the people themselves. 
And, however cynical many leaders were about the professions 
of Americans, the people were not so. In the hour of their 
affliction, these simple trusting folk, makers of the new dem- 
ocracy of the East, came stretching forth hands to the great 
strong democracy of the West. 

They knew that President Wilson had given his assurance 
of help and loyalty to the "people of Russia." They reasoned. 
"We the workers and peasants, the vast majority here in 
Vladivostok, are we not the people? Today in our trouble we 
come to claim the promised help. Our enemies have taken 
away our Soviet. They have killed our comrades. We are 
alone and in distress and you alone of all the nations of the 
earth can understand." No finer tribute could they offer than 
thus to come bringing their dead with the faith that out of 
America would come compassion and understanding. America, 
their only friend and refuge. 

But America did not understand. The American people 
did not even hear about it. But these Russian folk did not 

81 



know that the American people never heard about it. All 
they know is that a few weeks after that appeal came the 
landing of the American troops. 

And now they say to one another: "How stupid we were 
to stand there in the heat and dust stretching out our hands 
like beggars!" 



THE RUSSIAN CONSTITUTION 



The following translation of the Constitution of 
the Russian Soviet Republic is made from an offi- 
cial printed text embodying the latest provisions, 
and required) by law to be posted in ai 1 places in 
Russia. — Reprinted from The Nation. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIALIST FEDER- 
ATED SOVIET REPUBLIC. 
Resolution of the 5th All-Russian Congress of Soviets, 
Adopted on July 10, 1918. 

THE declaration of rights of the laboring and exploited peo- 
ple (approved by the third All-Russian Congress of Soviets 

in January, 1918), together with the Constitution of the 
Soviet Republic, approved by the fifth Congress, constitutes a 
single fundamental law of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic. 

This fundamental law becomes effective upon the publica- 
tion of the same in its entirety in the "Izvestia of the All- 
Russian General Executive Committee." It must be published 
by all organs of the Soviet Government and must be posted in 
a prominent place in every Soviet institution. 

The fifth Congress instructs the People's Commissariat of 
Education to introduce in all schools and educational institu- 
tions of the Russian Republic the study and explanation of the 
basic principles of this Constitution. 

ARTICLE ONE. 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE LABORING AND 

EXPLOITED PEOPLE. 

Chapter One. 

1. Russia' is declared to be a Republic of the Soviets of 
Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. -All the central and 
local power belongs to these Soviets. 

2. The Russian Soviet Republic is organized on the basis 
of a free union of free nations, as a federation of Soviet national 
Republics. 

Chapter Two. 

3. Bearing in mind as its fundamental problem the aboli- 
tion of exploitation of men by men, the entire abolition of the 
division of the people into classes, the suppression of exploiters, 

82 



the establishment of a Socialist society, and the victory of Social- 
ism in all lands, the third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of 
Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies further resolves: 

a. For the purpose of realizing the socialization of land, 
all private property in land is abolished, and the entire land 
is declared to be national property and is to be apportioned 
among husbandmen without any compensation to the former 
owners, in the measure of each one's ability to till it. 

b. All forests, treasures of the earth, and waters of gen- 
eral public utility, all implements whether animate of inani- 
mate, model farms and agricultural enterprises, are declared to 
be national property. 

c. As a first step towards complete transfer of ownership 
to the Soviet Republic of all factories, mills, mines, railways, 
and other means of production and transportation, the Soviet 
law for the control by workmen and the establishment of the 
Supreme Soviet of National Economy is hereby confirmed, so 
as to assure the power of the workers over the exploiters. 

d. With reference to international banking and finance, the 
third Congress of Soviets is discussing the Soviet decree re- 
garding the annulment of loans made by the Government of the 
Czar, by landowners and the bourgeoisie, and it trusts that the 
Soviet Government will firmly follow this course until the final 
victory of the international workers' revolt against the oppres- 
sion of capital. 

e. The transfer of all banks into the ownership of the Work- 
ers' and Peasants' Government, as one of the conditions of the 
liberation of the toiling masses from the yoke of capital, is con- 
firmed. 

f. Universal obligation to work is introduced for the pur- 
pose of eliminating the parasitic strata of society and organiz- 
ing the economic life of the country. 

g. For the purpose of securing the working class in the pos- 
session of the complete power, and in order to eliminate all 
possibility of restoring the power of the exploiters, it is decreed 
that all toilers be armed, and that a Socialist Red Army be 
organized and the propertied class be disarmed. 

Chapter Three. 

4. Expressing its absolute resolve to liberate mankind from 
the grip of capital and imperialism, which flooded the earth with 
blood in this present most criminal of all wars, the third Con- 
gress of Soviets fully agrees with -the Soviet Government in its 
policy of breaking secret treaties, of organizing on a wide scale 
the fraternization of the workers and peasants of the belligerent 
armies, and of making all efforts to conclude a general demo- 
cratic peace without annexations or indemnities, upon the basis 
of the free determination of the peoples. 

5. It is also to this end that the third Congress of Soviets 
insists upon putting an end to the barbarous policy of the bour- 

83 



geois civilization which enables the exploiters of a few chosen 
nations to enslave hundreds of millions of the toiling popula- 
tion of Asia, of the colonies, and of small countries generally. 

6. The third Congress of Soviets hails the policy of the 
Council of People's Commissars in proclaiming the full inde- 
pendence of Finland, in withdrawing troops from Persia, and 
in proclaiming the right of Armenia to self-determination. 

Chapter Four. 

7. The third All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', 
Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies believes that now, during the 
progress of the decisive battle between the proletariat and its 
exploiters, the exploiters can not hold a position in any branch 
of the Soviet Government. The power must belong entirely to 
the toiling masses and to their plenipotentiary representatives — 
the Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. 

8. In its effort to create a league — free and voluntary, and 
for that reason all the more complete and secure — of the work- 
ing classes of all the peoples of Russia, the third Congress of 
Soviets merely establishes the ' fundamental principles of the 
federation of Russian Soviet Republics, leaving to the workers 
and peasants of every people to decide the following question 
at their plenary sessions of their Soviets: whether or not they 
desire to participate, and on what basis, in the federal govern- 
ment and other federal Soviet institutions. 

ARTICLE TWO. 

GENERAL PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 

RUSSIAN SOCIALIST FEDERATED 

SOVIET REPUBLIC. 

Chapter Five. 

9. The fundamental problem of the Constitution of the 
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic involves, in view of 
the present transition period, the establishment of a dictatorship 
of the urban and rural proletariat and the poorest peasantry in 
the form of a powerful All-Russian Soviet authority, for the 
purpose of abolishing the exploitation of men by men and of in- 
troducing Socialism, in which there will be neither a division 
into classes nor a state of autocracy. 

10. The Russian Republic is a free Socialist society of all 
the working people of Russia. The entire power, within the 
boundaries of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, 
belongs to all the working people of Russia, united in urban 
and rural Soviets. 

11. The Soviets of those regions which differentiate them- 
selves by a special form of existence and national character 
may unite in autonomous regional unions, ruled by the local 
Congress of the Soviets and their executive organs. 

These autonomous regional unions participate in the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic upon the basis of a federa- 
tion. 

84 



12. The supreme power of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic belongs to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, 
and, in periods between the convocation of the Congress, to the 
All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

13. For the purpose of securing to the toilers real freedom 
of conscience, the church is to be separated from the state and 
the school from the church, and the right of religious and anti- 
religious propaganda is accorded to every citizen. 

14. For the purpose of securing the freedom of expression 
to the toiling masses, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic abolishes all dependence of the press upon capital, and 
turns over to the working people and the poorest peasantry all 
technical and material means of publication of newspapers, 
pamphlets, books, etc., and guarantees their free circulation 
throughout the country. 

15. For the purpose of enabling the workers to hold free 
meetings, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic offers 
to the working class and to the poorest peasantry furnished 
halls, and takes care of their heating and lighting appliances. 

16. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, hav- 
ing crushed the economic and political power of the propertied 
classes and, having thus abolished all obstacles which interfered 
with the freedom of organization and action of the workers and 
peasants, offers assistance, material and other, to the workers 
and the poorest peasantry in their effort to unite and organize. 

17. For the purpose of guaranteeing to the workers real 
access to knowledge, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic sets itself the task of furnishing full and general free 
education to the workers aand the poorest peasantry. 

18. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic con- 
siders work the duty of every citizen ot the Republic, and pro- 
claims as its motto: "He shall not eat who does not work.'* 

19. For the purpose of defending the victory of the great 
peasants' and workers' revolution, the Russian Socialist Feder- 
ated Soviet Republic recognizes the duty of all citizens of the 
Republic to come to the defense of their Socialist Fatherland, 
and it, therefore, introduces universal military training. The 
honor of defending the revolution with arms is given only to the 
toilers, and the non-toiling elements are charged with the per- 
formance of other military duties. 

20. In consequence of the solidarity of the toilers of all na- 
tions, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic grants 
all political rights of Russian citizens to foreigners who live 
in the territory of the Russian Republic and are engaged in toil 
and who belong to the toiling class. The Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic also recognizes the right of local 
Soviets to grant citizenship to such foreigners without compli- 
cated formality. 

85 



21. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic offers 
shelter to all foreigners who seek refuge from political or reli- 
gious persecution. 

22. The Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, rec- 
ognizing equal rights of all citizens, irrespective of their racial or 
national connections, proclaims all privileges on this ground, as 
well as oppression of national minorities, to be in contradiction 
with the fundamental laws of the Republic. 

23. Being guided by the interests of the working class as 
a whole, the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic de- 
prives all individuals and groups of rights which could be 
utilized by them to the detriment of the Socialist Revolution. 

ARTICLE THREE. 

CONSTRUCTION OF THE SOVIET POWER 

A, ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL POWER. 

Chapter Six. 

The All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers', Peasants', 

Cossacks', and Red Army Deputies. 

24. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets is composed of 
power of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

25. The all-Russian Congress of Soviets is composed of 
representatives of urban Soviets (one delegate for 25,000 voters), 
and of the representatives of the provincial (Gubernia) congresses 
of Soviets (one delegate for 125,000 inhabitants). 

Note 1. In case the Provincial Congress is not called be- 
fore the All-Russian Congress is convoked, delegates for the 
latter are sent directly from the county (Ouezd) Congress. 

Note 2. In case the Regional (Oblast) Congress is convoked 
indirectly, previous to the convocation of the All-Russian Con- 
gress, delegates for the latter may be sent by the Regional Con- 
gress. 

26. The All-Russian Congress is convoked by the All-Rus. 
sian Central Executive Committee at least twice a year. 

27. A special All-Russian Congress is convoked by the All- 
Russian Central Executive Committee upon its own initiative, or 
upon the request of local Soviets having not less than one-third 
of the entire population of the Republic. 

28. The All-Russian Congress elects an All-Russian Central 
Executive Committee of not more than 200 members. 

29. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee is entirely 
responsible to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets. 

30. In the periods between the convocation of the Con- 
gresses, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee is the 
supreme power of the Republic. 

Chapter Seven. 
The All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

31. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee is the 
supreme legislative, executive and controlling organ of the Rus- 
sian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

86 



32. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee directs 
in a general way the activity of the workers* and peasants' 
Government and of all organs of the Soviet authority in the 
country, and it co-ordinates and regulates the operation of the 
Soviet Constitution and of the resolutions of the All-Russian 
Congresses and of the central organs of the Soviet power. 

33. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee considers 
and enacts all measures and proposals introduced by the Soviet 
of People's Commissars or by the various departments, and it 
also issues its own decrees and regulations. 

34. The Ail-Russian Central Executive Committee convokes 
the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, at which time the Executive 
Committee reports on its activity and on general questions. 

35. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee forms a 
Council of People's Commissars for the purpose of general man- 
agement of the affairs of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic, and it also forms departments (People's Commissari- 
ats) for the purpose of conducting various branches. 

36. The members of the All-Russian Central Executive 
Committee work in the various departments (People's Com- 
missariats) or execute special orders of the All-Russian Central 
Executive Committee. 

Chapter Eight. 

The Council of People's Commissars. 

37. The Council of People's Commissars is entrusted with 
the general management of the affairs of the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic. 

38. For the accomplishment of this task the Council of 
People's Commissars issues decrees, resolutions, orders, and, in 
general, takes all steps necessary for the proper and rapid con- 
duct of government affairs. 

39. The Council of People's Commissars notifies immedi- 
ately the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of all its 
orders and resolutions. 

40. The All-Russian Central Executive Committee has the 
right to revoke or suspend all orders and resolutions of the 
Council of People's Commissars. 

41. All orders and resolutions of the Council of People's 
Commissars of great political significance are turned over for 
consideration and final approval to the All-Russian Central Ex- 
ecutive Committee. 

Note. Measures requiring immediate execution may be en- 
acted directly by the Council of People's Commissars. 

42. The members of the Council of People's Commissars 
stand at the head of the various People's Commissariats. 

43. There are seventeen People's Commissars: 

a. Foreign Affairs. 

b. Army. 

c. Navy. 

d. Interior. 

87 



e. Justice. 

f. Labor. 

g. Social Welfare, 
h. Education. 

i. Post and Telegraph. 

j. National Affairs. 

k. Finances. 

1. Ways of Communication. 

m. Agriculture. 

n. Commerce and Industry. 

o. National Supplies. 

p. State Control. 

q. Supreme Soviet of National Economy. 

r. Public Health. 

44. Every Commissar has a College (Committee) of which 
he is the President, and the members of which are appointed 
by the Council of People's Commissars. 

45. A People's Commissar has the individual right to decide 
on all questions under the jurisdiction of his Commissariat, and 
he is to report on his decision to the College. If the College 
does not agree with the Commissar on some decisions, the for- 
mer may, without stopping the execution of the decision, com- 
plain of it to the executive members of the Council of People's 
Commissars or to the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

Individual members of the College have this right also. 

46. The Council of People's Commissars is entirely re- 
sponsible to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets and the All- 
Russian Central Executive Committee. 

47. The People's Commissars and the Colleges of the Peo- 
ple's Commissariats are entirely responsible to the Council of 
People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive 
Committee. 

48. The title of People's Commissar belongs only to the 
members of the Council of People's Commissars, which is in 
charge of general affairs of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic, and it cannot be used by any other representa- 
tive of the Soviet power, either central or local. 

Chapter Nine. 

Affairs in the Jurisdiction of the All-Russian Congress and the 

All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

49. The All-Russian Congress and the All-Russian Central 
Executive Committee deal with questions of state, such as: 

a Ratification and amendment of the Constitution of the 
Russian Socialist. Federated Soviet Republic. 

b. General direction of the entire interior and foreign policy 
of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

c. Establishing and changing boundaries, also ceding terri- 
tory belonging to the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Re- 
public. 

88 



d. Establishing boundaries for regional Soviet unions be- 
longing to the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, also 
settling disputes among them. 

e. Admission of new members to the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic, and recognition of the secession of 
any parts of it. 

f. The general administrative division of the territory of 
the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic and the ap- 
proval of regional unions. 

g. Establishing and changing of weights, measures ,and 
money denominations in the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic. 

h. Foreign relations, declaration of war, and ratification of 
peace treaties. 

i. Making loans, signing commercial treaties, and financial 
agreements. 

j. Working out a basis and a general plan for the national 
economy and for its various branches in the Russian Socialist 
Federated Soviet Republic. 

k. Approval of the budget of the Russian Socialist Feder- 
ated Soviet Republic. 

1. Levying taxes and establishing the duties of citizens to 
the state. 

m. Establishing the bases for the organization of armed 
forces. 

n. State legislation, judicial organization and procedure, 
civil and criminal legislation, etc. 

o. Appointment and dismissal of the individual People's 
Commissars or the entire Council; also approval of the Presi- 
dent of the Council of People's Commissars. 

p. Granting and cancelling Russian citizenship and fixing 
rights of foreigners. 

q. The right to declare individual and general amnesty. 

50. Besides the above-mentioned questions, the All-Russian 
Congress and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee have 
charge of all other affairs which, according to their decision, 
require their attention. 

51. The following questions are solely under the jurisdic- 
tion of the All-Russian Congress: 

a. Ratification and amendment of the fundamental princi- 
ples of the Soviet Constitution. 

b. Ratification of peace treaties. 

52. The decision of questions indicated in Items c and h of 
Paragraph 49 may be made by the All-Russian Central Execu- 
tive Committee only in case it is impossible to convoke the 
Congress. 

B. ORGANIZATION OF LOCAL SOVIETS. 

Chapter Ten. 

The Congresses of the Soviets. 

53. Congresses of Soviets are composed as follows: 

89 



a. Regional: of representatives of the urban and county 
Soviets, one representative for 25,000 inhabitants of the county, 
and one representative for 5,000 voters of the cities — but not 
more than 500 representatives for the entire region — or of rep- 
resentatives of the provincial Congresses, chosen on the same 
basis, if such a Congress meets before the regional Congress. 

b. Provincial (Gubernia) : of representatives of urban and 
rural (Volost) Soviets, one representative for 10,000 inhabitants 
from the rural districts, and one representative for 2,000 voters 
in the city; altogether not more than 300 representatives for 
the entire province. In case the county Congress meets before 
the provincial, election takes place on the same basis, but by the 
county Congress instead of the rural. 

c. County: of representatives of rural Soviets, one delegate 
for each 1,000 inhabitants, but not more than 300 delegates for 
the entire county. 

d. Rural (Volost) : of representatives of all village Soviets 
in the Volost, one delegate for ten members of the Soviet. 

Note 1. Representatives of urban Soviets which have a 
population of not more than 10,000 persons participate in the 
county Congress; village Soviets of districts of less than 1,000 
inhabitants unite for the purpose of electing delegates to the 
county Congress. 

Note 2. Rural Soviets of less than ten members send one 
delegate to the rural (Volost) Congress. 

54. Congresses of the Soviets are convoked by the re- 
spective Executive Committees upon their own initiative, or 
upon request of local Soviets comprising not less than one-third 
of the entire population of the given district. In any case they 
are convoked at least twice a year for regions, every three 
months for provinces and counties, and once a month for rural 
districts. 

55. Every Congress of Soviets (regional, provincial, county, 
and rural) elects its Executive organ — an Executive Committee 
the membership of which shall not exceed: 

(a) For regions and provinces, 25; (b) for a county, 20; 
(c) for a rural district, 10. The Executive Committee is re- 
sponsible to the Congress which elected it. 

56. In the boundaries of the respective territories the Con- 
gress is the supreme power; during intervals between the con- 
vocations of the Congress, the Executive Committee is the su- 
preme power. 

Chapter Eleven. 

The Soviet of Deputies. 

57. Soviets of Deputies are formed: 

a. In cities, one deputy for each 1,000 inhabitants; the 
total to be not less than 50 and not more than 1,000 members. 

b. All otber settlements (towns, villages, hamlets, etc.) of 
less than 10,000 inhabitants, one deputy for each 100 inhabit- 

90 



ants; the total to be not less than three and not more than 50 
deputies for each settlement. 

Term of the deputy, three months. 

Note — In small rural sections, whenever possible, all ques- 
tions shall be decided at general meetings of voters. 

58. The Soviet of Deputies elects an Executive Commit- 
tee to deal with current affairs; not more than five members 
for rural districts, one for every 50 members of the Soviets of 
cities, but not more than 15 and not less than three in the 
aggregate (Petrograd and Moscow not more than 40). The 
Executive Committee is entirely responsible to the Soviet 
which elected it. 

59. The Soviet of Deputies is convoked by the Executive 
Committee upon its own initiative, or upon the request of not 
less than one-half of the membership of the Soviet; in any 
case at least once a week in cities, and twice a week in rural 
sections. 

60. Within its jurisdiction the Soviet, and in cases men- 
tioned in Paragraph 57, Note, the meeting of the voters, is 
the supreme power in the given district. 

Chapter Twelve. 
Jurisdiction of the Local Organs of the Soviets. 

61. Regional, provincial, county, and rural organs of the 
Soviet power and also the Soviets of Deputies have to per- 
form the following duties: 

a. Carry out all orders of the respective higher organs 
of the Soviet power. 

b. Take all steps towards raising the cultural and eco- 
nomic standard of the given territory. 

c. Decide all questions of local importance within their 
respective territory. 

d. Coordinate all Soviet activity in their respective terri- 
tory. 

62. The Congresses of Soviets and their Executive Com- 
mittees have the right to control the activity of the local Sovi- 
ets (i. e., the regional Congress controls all Soviets of the re- 
spective regions; the provincial, of the respective province, 
with the exception of the urban Soviets, etc.) ; and the re- 
gional and provincial Congresses and their Executive Com- 
mittees in addition have the right to overrule the decisions of 
the Soviets of their districts, giving notice in important cases 
to the central Soviet authority. 

63. For the purpose of performing their duties, the local 
Soviets, rural and urban, and the Executive Committees form 
sections respectively. 

ARTICLE FOUR. 

THE RIGHT TO VOTE. 

Chapter Thirteen. 

64. The right to vote and to be elected to the Soviets is 
enjoyed by the following citizens, irrespective of religion, na- 

91 



tionality, domicile, etc., of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic, of both sexes, who shall have completed their 
eighteenth year by the day of election: 

a. All who have acquired the means of living through 
labor that is productive and useful to society, and also per- 
sons engaged in housekeeping, which enables the former to do 
productive work, i. e., laborers and employees of all classes 
who are employed in industry, trade, agriculture, etc.; and 
peasants and Cossack agricultural laborers who employ no 
help for the purpose of making profits. 

b. Soldiers of the army and navy of the Soviets. 

c. Citizens of the two preceding categories who have 
to any degree lost their capacity to work. 

Note 1 — Local Soviets may, upon approval of the central 
power, lower the age standard mentioned herein. 

Note 2 — Non-citizens mentioned in Paragraph 20 (Article 
Two, Chapter 5) have the right to vote. 

65. The following persons enjoy neither the right to vote 
nor the right to be voted for, even though they belong to one of 
the categories enumerated above, namely: 

a. Persons who employ hired labor in order to obtain 
from it an increase in profits. 

b. Persons who have an income without doing any work, 
such as interest from capital, receipts from property, etc. 

c. Private merchants, trade and commercial brokers. 

d. Monks and clergy of all denominations. 

e. Employees and agents of the former police, the gen- 
darme corps, and the Okhrana (Czar's secret service), also 
members of the former reigning dynasty. 

f. Persons who have in legal form been declared dement- 
ed or mentally deficient, and also persons under guardianship. 

g. Persons who have been deprived by a Soviet of their 
rights of citizenship because of selfish or dishonorable of- 
fenses, for the period fixed by the sentence. 

Chapter Fourteen. 
Elections. 

66. Elections are conducted according to custom on days 
fixed by the local Soviets. 

67. Election takes place in the presence of an electing com- 
mittee and the representative of the local Soviet. 

68. In case the representative of the Soviet cannot be 
present for valid causes, the chairman of the electing com- 
mittee takes his place, and in case the latter is absent, the 
chairman of the election meeting replaces him. 

69. Minutes of the proceedings and results of elections are 
to be compiled and signed by the members of the electing com- 
mittee and the representative of the Soviet. 

70. Detailed instructions regarding the election proceed- 
ings and the participation in them of professional and other 

92 



workers* organizations are to be issued by the local Soviets, 
according to the instructions of the All-Russian Central Execu- 
tive Committee. 

Chapter Fifteen. 
The Checking and Cancellation of Elections and Recall of the 

Deputies. 

71. The respective Soviets receive all the records of the 
proceedings of the election. 

72. The Soviets appoint a commission to verify the elec- 
tions. 

73. This commission reports on the results of the Soviets. 

74. The Soviet decides the question when there is doubt 
as to which candidate is elected. 

75. The Soviet announces a new election if the election 
of one candidate or another cannot be determined. 

76. If an election was irregularly carried on in its entirety, 
it may be declared void by a higher Soviet authority. 

77. The highest authority in relation to questions of elec- 
tions is the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. 

78. Voters who have sent a deputy to the Soviet have the 
right to recall him, and to have a new election, according to 
general provisions. 

ARTICLE FIVE. 

THE BUDGET. 
Chapter Sixteen. 

79. The financial policy of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic in the present transition period of dictator- 
ship of the proletariat, facilitates the fundamental purpose of 
expropriation of the bourgeoisie and the preparation of condi- 
tions necessary for the equality of all citizens of Russia in the 
production and distribution of wealth. To this end it sets 
forth as its task the supplying of the organs of the Soviet 
power with all necessary funds for local and state needs of 
the Soviet Republic, without regard to private property rights. 

80. The state expenditure and income of the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic are combined in the state 
budget. 

81. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets or the All-Rus- 
sian Central Executive Committee determine what matters of 
income and taxation shall go to the state budget and what 
shall go to the local Soviets; they also set the limits of taxes. 

82. The Soviets levy taxes only for the local needs. The 
state needs are covered by the funds of the state treasury. 

83. No expenditure out of the state treasury not set forth 
in the budget of income and expense shall be made without a 
special order of the central power. 

84. The local Soviets shall receive credits from the proper 
People's Commissars out of the state treasury, for the purpose 
of making expenditures for general state needs. 

93 



85. All credits allotted to the Soviets from the state 
treasury, and also credits approved for local needs, must be 
expended according to the estimates, and cannot be used for 
any other purposes without a special order of the All-Russian 
Central Executive Committee and the Soviet of People's Com- 
missars. 

86. Local Soviets draw up semi-annual and annual esti- 
mates of income and expenditure for local needs. The esti- 
mates of urban and rural Soviets participating in county con- 
gresses, and also the estimates of the county organs of the 
Soviet power, are to be approved by provincial and regional 
congresses or by their executive committees; the estimates of 
the urban, provincial, and regional organs of the Soviets are to 
be approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 
and the Council of People's Commissars. 

87. The Soviets may ask for additional credits from the 
respective People's Commissariats for expenditures not set 
forth in the estimate, or where the allotted sum is insufficient. 

88. In case of an insufficiency of local funds for local 
needs, the necessary subsidy may be obtained from the state 
treasury by applying to the All-Russian Central Executive Com- 
mittee or the Council of People's Commissars. 

ARTICLE SIX. 

THE COAT OF ARMS AND FLAG OF THE RUSSIAN 

SOCIALIST FEDERATED SOVIET REPUBLFC. 

Chapter Seventeen. 

89. The coat of arms of the Russian Socialist Federated 
Soviet Republic consists of a red background on which a 
golden scythe and a hammer are placed (crosswise, handles 
downward) in sun-rays and surrounded by a wreath, inscribed: 

RUSSIAN SOCIALIST FEDERATED SOVIET REPUBLIC. 
WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! 

90. The commercial, naval, and army flag of the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic consists of a red cloth, in 
the left corner of which (on top, near the pole) there are in 
golden characters the letters R. S. F. S. R., or the inscription: 
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. 

Chairman of the fifth All-Russian Congress of Soviets and 
of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee — J. Sverdloff. 

Executive Officers — All-Russian Central Executive Commit- 
tee: T. I. Teodorowitch, F. A. Rosin, A. P. Rosenholz, A. C. 
Mitrofanoff, K. G. Maximoff. 

Secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee 

— V. A. Avanessoff. 

* * * * * 

Since the foregoing Russian Constitution was adopted the 
following decree of the People's Commissaires has been en- 
acted: 

94 



A decree of the Council of People's Commissaires, pub- 
lished in the Izvestaya, the organ of the Central Executive Com- 
mittee, of the 24th of November, 1918, No. 257: 

The Soviet of People's Commissaires, believing that a more 
steady and widespread exchange of written communications 
between the proletarians of the cities and the poorer classes of 
the villages will further serve to strengthen and confirm the 
union already existing between them, and will in this manner 
aid in organizing the revolutionary Socialist forces of Russia, 
considers it essential to simplify and facilitate the exchange of 
postal communications. With these objects in view, the Soviet 
of People's Commissaires decrees as follows: (1) After Janu- 
ary 1, 1919, there will be free transmission in Russia of all open 
and sealed written communications, weighing not more than 
fifteen drams (about one ounce) ; (2) unregistered letters 
weighing more than fifteen drams, as well as registered let- 
ters, will be paid for at the full regular rate, in stamps cover- 
ing charges for weight and registration; (3) unregistered let- 
ters and packages sent by Soviet institutions pay no charges; 
(4) the delivery without charge of unregistered open communi- 
cations is extended also to cover the correspondence entering 
the confines of Soviet Russia from other countries. 



THE MOTHERS AND CHILDREN OF SOVIET 
RUSSIA 

An Answer to the Capitalist Lie That Says the Bolsheviki 
Degrades Women 

Two million young lives every year have been sacrificed 
in Russia because of the darkness of the oppressed people, 
because of the apathy of the Class State. Two million 
suffering mothers yearly have saturated Russian soil with 
tears, and covered with toil-worn hands the early graves 
of the innocent victims of the hideous social order. Human 
thought, which for centuries has sought a free path, has at 
last reached the bright age of workers' reforms, in which 
the mother will be safeguarded for the child, and the child 
for the mother. Among the conspicuous examples of 
capitalist morality were orphan-asylums crowded beyond 
their capacity, with a colossal death-rate and a horrible 
method of nursing the children — a method which was an 
insult to the sacred feelings of a helpless toiling mother, 
and which made of a mother-citizen a dull nursing animal. 
All these nightmare horrors have, fortunately, been swal- 
lowed up in the dark mists of the past since the victory of the 
Workers' and Peasants' Revolution. 

You, working-women, toiling mother-citizens, with your 
responsive hearts — you brave builders of a new social life 

95 



— you ideal teachers, physicians, and nurses — all of you 
are called by new Soviet Russia to contribute your minds 
and feelings to help build the great structure of Social Wel- 
fare for future generations. All central and local institutions 
of the Commissariat of Public Welfare which serve the 
children, from the date of publication of this decree, are 
merged into one organization, and transferred to the super- 
vision of the Department for Safeguarding Mothers and Chil- 
dren, so as to create an inseparable system, together with the 
institutions for the care of pregnant women, for the purpose 
of bringing up mentally and physically strong citizens. The 
Petrograd Maternity Home (formerly a private institution), 
with all its auxiliary branches, becomes a part of the system 
of "Palaces for Safeguarding Motherhood and Infancy, " and 
is named, "Palace of Infancy. " The Moscow Maternity Home 
becomes part of the Moscow Institute of Motherhood, and is 
named, "The Moscow Institute of Infancy." 

For the purpose of hastening the realization of the neces- 
sary reform for safeguarding childhood in Russia, a special 
committee has been organized in connection with the Depart- 
ment for Safeguarding Mothers and Children. This committee 
is composed of representatives of the Soviets of Workers', 
Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies, of workers' organizations, 
and of specialists in children's health and education. The 
following principles shall guide the work of this Committee: 

1. Safeguarding the mother for the child. The best 
milk for the child — the milk from its mother's breast. 

2. Bringing up the child in the atmosphere of a widely- 
developed socialist community. 

3. Creating for the child conditions which will lay a 
foundation for the development of its physical and mental 
strength, and for a bright understanding of life. 

People's Commissar of Public Welfare: Alexandra 
Kollontay. 

Member of the Collegium, supervising the Depart- 
ment for Safeguarding Mothers and Children: N. Korolev. 

Secretary: Zvetkov. January 31, 1918. 



96 








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